


Blood and Scars

by mythicalwolfpup



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: AU-real life mirror, Abduction, Aftermath of Torture, Dark, Dissociation, FBI, Gang Violence, Gore, Harsh, Kidnappers - Freeform, Kidnapping, M/M, Other, PTSD, Serial Killers, Seriously Dark, Torture, explicit description of rape and torture, police search and rescue, sociopath oc's
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-07-18 07:13:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 42,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7304650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythicalwolfpup/pseuds/mythicalwolfpup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a routine day at the Achievement Hunter office until Michael is brutally abducted. Suddenly Achievement Hunters are going missing; Jeremy, Ryan, Jack and Geoff disappearing without a trace. A multi-pov story that follows Michael and the other AH personas through a harrowing trial while following Gavin through the police process to rescue them. WARNING: graphic descriptions of blood/gore, rape and torture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Abduction

**Author's Note:**

> A new story I have been working on. I will have trigger warnings for individual chapters and hope to update twice a week. Later chapters will be longer.

Michael walked down the street with Gavin at his side, laughing at the stupid antics of the British man while they looked for a good backdrop for their next skit. “Michael!” Gavin continued, walking backwards on the street, “you get a million dollars but for the rest of your life you have to wear shoes on your hands!” The lad cackled, stumbling a little clumsily on an uneven patch of the sidewalk. 

“That would make handstands easier,” Michael commented, actually looking around and working out camera angles in his head. The one day that they actually had Gavin in the same state and he wasn’t even trying. Michael wasn’t really surprised. The day was almost over and it was about time to turn around and head back to the studio anyway. 

“Imagine whizzing though! If you moved too fast it would be like getting kicked in the balls!” 

Michael was about to say it would be good target practice when he heard the sound of a loud engine and a black SUV pulled roughly out of the alley next to them, nearly hitting Gavin. 

“Watch out!” He grabbed his friend’s arm, turning to yell at the driver put looking through the drivers-side window, all he could see was a dark mask, the eye holes turning to stare at him. What the hell? 

The back doors of the SUV popped open as the vehicle screeched to a halt right in front of them. Michael stumbled backward, surprise not really letting his brain process what was happening. Large shapes completely clothed in black including back masks despite the warm Austin air jumped out of the SUV, heading straight for them. Michael’s blood ran cold and he grabbed at his friend. 

“Wut? Christ!” he heard his friend say in a shocked voice. 

“Gavvy, run!” Michael yelled, hauling on his friends arm. The Brit didn’t need to be told twice, turning and sprinting away, Michael following. He could hear the men behind them shouting in gruff voices.

“Cut them off!”

“Grab them!”

What was happening? Who were these guys? 

These questions spiraled through Michael’s brain as his feet pounded the pavement, his heart in his throat. Gavin pulled ahead of Michael by a couple feet and Michael lengthened his stride, adrenaline pumping through his veins. 

Suddenly, his foot hit a rough patch in the uneven sidewalk and he shouted involuntarily as he hit the ground hard, his forearms catching his body, getting scraped to all hell. Shit! He tried to scramble back to his feet but suddenly a foot was in the middle of his back and hands were grabbing his arms, forcing his hands behind his back.

His mind seemed frozen, not really believing his senses telling him about the gloved hands on his skin or the gravel digging into his chin as he raised his head in an attempt to see if Gavin was getting away. 

Gavin had slowed, looking back at Michael’s yell and Michael could see his shocked and scared expression, a face he had never seen his funny friend wear before. “Go, Gavvy! Run! Ruuun!” 

A dark figure raced after his friend but the blonde had a big head start. No, not Gavin. Go Gavin, go! Michael’s voice wasn’t working anymore, shock closing his throat. Michael struggled against the hands holding him down and tightening a zip-tie around his wrists, his curly hair falling into his eyes. 

He fought past the shock blocking his voice. “Help! Help me!” Michael managed to scream at the surrounding buildings, inwardly cursing that they had knowingly turned away from a pedestrian-filled area. Where was Gavin? Who were these guys? His blood thudded through his body. “Help!” He struggled again.

A sharp blow from one of his assailants jerked his head sideways and he momentarily saw stars, stunned. “Quiet!” A voice hissed in his ear. Hands grabbed his shoulders, roughly pulling him to his feet. He drew a breath to yell again but suddenly a rough piece of duct tape was being forced over his mouth and some kind of bag was thrown over his head.

Michael jerked around, trying to throw off the hands but a solid fist hit his stomach, making him bend over in pain. The tape over his mouth only allowed him some small grunting sounds as his assailants dragged him over the concrete, stuffing him into what he assumed was the SUV. 

He felt the hard floor of what he assumed was the back of the vehicle with all the seats folded down, his shoulder digging into the material as he tipped sideways. More hands dragged at him until he was roughly sitting against what he assumed was the wheel bed. The cloth covering his head was rough and didn’t let any light through.

Michael twisted his hands against the thin band of plastic, adrenaline masking the pain of it cutting into his wrists. With a huge effort, he forced his jaw open, tearing the duct tape off part of his mouth under the bag they had stuffed over his head. He kicked his feet, trying to hit them. 

“Let me go! Who are you? What do you want! You’re making a mistake! Fuck!” he managed to say before a sharp blow hit him in the face through the hood. Michael felt his eyebrow split and felt the drops of blood running down his face under the hood. 

“Tranq him!” a voice from the front said and there was a sharp pain in his neck. He tried to struggle again but there was suddenly a fog in his mind and he…couldn’t…move….


	2. A Bad Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael finds himself in a room with several other Achievement Hunter members. The real question though, is why they were taken in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are really appreciated. Let me know what you think!

Michael came to slowly, his head pounding a quiet boom, boom, boom into his awareness. He blinked slowly, the soft light harsh against his headache. For a moment he was at a loss for why he was sitting in an uncomfortable position with his arms behind his back before he saw the black zip-tie around his ankles and memories came flooding back.

Where were those guys? Was Gavin alright? Fucking shit! He looked around wildly, checking his surroundings and ignoring his pounding headache for the moment.

The room was small and bare with a concrete floor and one tiny window high on the wall that was so grimy Michael couldn’t tell if the light coming through it was from daylight or a streetlight. His back was against a concrete pillar and looking to his right he could see someone else sitting there like he was. The figure was slumped over, his arms and legs tied similarly but Michael could tell who it was. 

“Geoff!” Michael whispered. His boss didn’t answer him and from this angle Michael couldn’t even tell if he was gagged of not. 

He twisted farther around to see that another figure slumped opposite the pillar from Geoff and again, he was remarkably familiar. “Ryan?” Michael whispered. The light hair of his friend stuck up in the air and he could see what looked to be blood in some of it. 

Someone shifted on the other side of his own pillar, groaning. Michael tried to see who it was, twisting around but the tie on his hands was apparently attached to something and stopped him from looking past his shoulder. 

“Fuck!” Michael muttered as the tie cut into his wrist painfully and he had to suck in a breath. “Hey,” he called quietly. “Can you hear me?” The figure behind him shifted again, apparently trying to turn around. 

“What’s going on?” a familiar voice whispered. 

“Jack?” Michael asked, surprised that his burly friend was here before considering that Jack was really a gentle giant. Then again he thought Ryan could probably take their attackers and he was here as well. 

“Michael?” Jack asked back, his voice surprised and panicked. Michael could hear him looking around the room. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, no fucking clue!” Michael returned. Why was Jack here? Why were any of them here? What in the fucking world was going on? Michael could heart Jack trying to get his panicked breathing under control.

“How did we get here?” Jack asked after a moment’s pause. 

“Gavin and I were jumped. I think he got away though. Stuck me in their SUV and stuck a needle in my neck.” Michael could still feel a dull pain in the side of his neck from the needle and the memory of the attack turned his stomach over yet again. What was going on?

Jack hummed, shifting again. “I think they got me in the parking lot of the office. I can’t really remember but my head hurts like hell.”

“And nobody noticed you getting taken?” Michael asked incredulously, his voice rising slightly from the preoccupied whisper he had been using. He was sidetracked when Geoff let out a rough cough, slowly sitting up and obviously trying to rub his face, his arms jerking against the bonds before he looked around, making eye contact with Michael. 

“What the fucking hell is going on?” Geoff asked in a panicked voice. 

“Geoff, you’re awake! And we don’t know,” Jack answered.

“Jack? What th—” Geoff strained to see his friend before turning back to Michael. “Shit, Michael, are you okay? You’ve got blood all down your face.” Michael shrugged, wishing he could itch his nose. 

“I put up a bit of a fight,” he explained. Now that Geoff reminded him, his headache seemed to stem from his eyebrow and as he tried to squint his eyes against the pain, it seemed like a scab was trying to pull away. 

“Anyone else here?” Geoff asked, trying to do a head count and looking around the room. 

“Ryan’s behind you but he’s still out cold,” Jack answered. 

“Ryan?” Geoff turned against his bonds, calling to the still figure behind him. Getting no answer he turned back around and pulled experimentally at his restraints. Michael sat back against his pillar, his headache threatening his concentration. His stomach hurt from where he has been hit along with his face, his shoulders aching from the unnatural position and his butt numb from the hard floor. He let out a soft groan, leaning his head back against the pillar as the world swam slightly. There was a sudden commotion from the side of the room behind Michael and he whipped around again, not quite able to see what sounded like a door opening. He shut his teeth against another groan as the sudden movement caused pain to spike through his head. 

There was the sound of scuffing feet and then a figure came into view, thrown to the floor heavily and Michael recognized Jeremy, his hands behind his back, his eye badly swollen. The door was slammed shut and silence once again reigned. 

Michael saw Jeremy role from his stomach, to his side, shaking his head as if to clear it. “Jeremy! Are you okay?” Jack called. 

“What the fuck? Jack?” Jeremy asked, squirming to get a look at his colleague. “Michael, holy shit!” he exclaimed, seeing Michael peering around the pillar as far as he could. 

“Jeremy, are you hurt?” came Geoff’s voice. 

“Geoff? What—no I’m okay…is that Ryan?” 

“Do you know if they got Gavin?” Michael asked, fighting to concentrate against his headache. 

“Gavin? What—no I have no idea. What the hell is going on, guys?”

“We don’t know!” Geoff exclaimed, the panic in his voice a little too obvious. 

“Jeremy—” Jack started, but was cut off.

“Shut up for a second!” Jeremy barked uncharacteristically. “My keys are in my back pocket, I have a swiss army knife on my keychain.” Michael could see his arms reaching as he tried to peer over his shoulder. There was a clatter and a set of keys fell to the concrete floor. 

“You have a knife?” Geoff exclaimed. “Get us out of here!” 

“Working…on…that” Jeremy said through his teeth before there was a snap and Jeremy sat up, his hands free. Michael saw him crawl out of sight over to Jack and soon there was another snap followed by another, as Jack was set free. 

Ryan shifted against his pillar letting out a brief groan. Jeremy crawled over to him. “Ryan?” Jack appeared in front of Michael with Jeremy’s keys, a small blade attacked to the key ring, setting to work on the zip-tie around his ankles. Michael tried to stay as still as possible. 

“What…?” Ryan’s voice came across the room. 

“Jeremy, how’s he doing?” Geoff asked, twisting against his bonds. The tie around Michael’s ankles snapped apart and he leaned forward so Jack could get at the tie around his hands. 

“Looks like he got hit in the head,” Jeremy answered Geoff, “there’s a lot of blood in his hairline.” 

“What’s going on?” Ryan asked, his voice serious as he gained full awareness. 

“We don’t know. We’re trying to figure that out,” Jeremy answered quickly as Ryan started looking around the room. 

“Where the hell are we?” Ryan mumbled, pulling against his bonds. With a snap, Michael’s hands were free and he groaned as he rolled his shoulders, hissing slightly at the sight of the scrapes on his forearms. Jack headed over to Geoff to get him free but their boss shook his head.

“Get Ryan out first!” Jack moved to where Ryan and Jeremy were sitting and Michael carefully rolled to his knees, standing shakily and leaning against the pillar he was just tied to, looking around the room again. 

The door was heavy looking and had one grimy window. There was no latch on the inside of the door. 

Fuck. Whether or not they were out of their bonds, they were still trapped. 

******************************

What had to be some hours later they were still in the small room. The light from the small window hadn’t changed at all. They were sitting on the far wall from the door and quietly talking about nothing. 

There was a pause. “It has to be for ransom,” Geoff said out of the blue, bringing their conversation back yet again to what was going on. 

“Like I said before,” Ryan countered, “we don’t know what’s going on.”

Michael picked absently at the dried blood on his face, wiping the crumbles on his jeans. Anger sizzled in his stomach at the repetitive fight. He wanted to do something, not just sit here an argue reasons and logistics!

“Why would they take all of us if it was for ransom,” Jeremy said, once again repeating his previous point.

“Guys, chill!” Jack said as Geoff drew a breath ready to start the argument again. “We—”

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the door to the room opened and what seemed close to a dozen figures seeped through the door, all dressed in black with black masks on. Michael’s blood ran cold, his heart in his throat as he saw that several of them carried guns in their hands. 

The others stiffened around him as a figure stepped forward out of the sea of black. In contrast to the others, he wore a grey blazer and walked with a swagger. Even through his mask, his bright blue eyes were piercing. 

“I see you got out of your bonds. No matter, we almost expected that of you.” His voice was sharp like metal, cutting through the air of the small room and leaving chills on Michael’s skin. He had no doubt that this man had killed before. He had no doubt that this man would not hesitate to kill them if they said the wrong thing. Fuck.

“There is only one reason you are here,” the man continued and Michael waited in the tense silence to hear the reason behind what was going on. “Your company recently came into possession of something that was supposed to be ours,” the man said gesturing around him at the sea of dark clothes. 

“My sources were very specific, pointing out that it was your office in possession, meaning that at least one of you knows where it is.” The man walked forward even closer, crouching down so he was at eye level with them. Some of the men stalked closer, maybe expecting them to make a move. 

The bright blue eyes glittered like ice as they travelled along the row of men in front of him, seeming to wait for something. Michael’s mind was frozen. Was he really expecting one of them to tell him something? There was silence in the room, the black-clothed thugs shifting a little in anticipation. 

The man with the blue eyes sat back on his heels and Michael noticed a new angry set to his shoulders. “Now,” the man continued with a voice full of sarcasm and malice, “would be a great time to tell me where it is.”

Geoff shifted slightly next to Michael before speaking. “I’m sorry, but what exactly are you looking for?” Michael nodded a little, hoping that his confusion wasn’t making him look like an idiot. What the fucking hell were these guys looking for?

That was apparently the wrong answer because the man rose to his feet and pulled a small gun from his waistband. “This is not the time for games!” The man snarled, pointing his gun first at Geoff and then at Jack who was next to him. 

Michael froze, not knowing what to do, his heart in his mouth as the man’s voice rose louder and louder in the small room. “You ask what I’m looking for? My sources say that most likely all of you know exactly what I am talking about. And I need to know where it is in ten seconds, or I might just have to shoot…” the man swiveled his gun along the line of men in front of him before settling on Jack who was in the middle, “him.” 

It seemed to Michael that his heart was trying to tear itself out of his throat as the man pressed the muzzle of the gun against Jack’s forehead. Jack tried to lean away, getting trapped by the wall behind him. 

“Nine!” The grey man snapped and Michael searched desperately through his mind, trying to figure out exactly what this man was talking about. Fuck! Fucking shit! Was he really going to shoot? They apparently had something that these people wanted. But for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what. It wasn’t like they had purchased anything really noticeable the past few weeks. He could hear Jack breathing heavily next to him. 

“Eight!” The man snarled, clicking the safety off the gun. 

“I swear to you,” Geoff pleaded, raising his hands conciliatorily, “we have no idea what you are talking about. If you tell us what you’re looking for, maybe we can help you find it.”

“Seven,” the man hissed and Michael’s insides squirmed.

“Stop!” Jeremy yelled, gesturing for the man to put down the gun. “We don’t know what’s going on so just stop!”

Ryan was talking over him, yelling, “We don’t have whatever you think we have!” Michael noticed the angry tone in Ryan’s voice mixed with fear. 

“Six! Five!” The man counted over the top of the chaos and Michael found himself pleading with the man as well.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t fucking shoot!” he heard himself plead. “We could help you find whatever but please don’t shoot!” Geoff was also yelling at his side. 

“Four! Sit down!” The man waved the gun in Jeremy’s direction as he tried to rise and he sunk back down to the floor. The gun was back on Jack in a second, and Michael could see a gleam in the man’s eyes as if he were enjoying this somehow. “Two!” he snarled again, pressing the muzzle against Jack’s head who turning his head to the side, the muzzle pressed above his ear. “Last chance!” Jack had his eyes screwed up and Michael couldn’t even tell if there were coherent words coming out of his mouth as he yelled at the man. 

“One!” A sharp click sounded as the man pulled the trigger with no bullets in the gun. A sudden silence reigned as the man took a step back. Jack moved his head slowly to look up at the man who had threatened to shoot him. Michael was worried the entire room could hear his heart pounding wildly as if trying to free itself. He wanted to vomit.

A strange sound interrupted the silence and it took Michael a moment to realize that the man in the mask was laughing. He threw his head back, his cackle filling the room with chills. The laughter suddenly stopped and the man looked at the five of them against the wall, sizing them up. “This is going to be more fun than I thought,” he said gleefully. 

“I’m not even on a time limit with this one which means that I can take my time getting the answer out. Sure my boss would like to know where the package is, but since we are the only one’s looking for it, he said I could take my sweet time.” There was a pause. “I’m going to enjoy this!” The man gestured his goons forward. 

Before Michael could really respond, three of the men were dragging him to his feet roughly.


	3. Red and Rogues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael meets Red, the chief torturer for this organization. They seem to think the Achievement Hunters know something but how far will they go until they realize they have the wrong people? And then the rogues stop by, brutal men who want one of the Achievement Hunters for themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger-warning: torture in this chapter. Reader discretion is advised.

They were out the door in a second. Michael realized he was shaking as he couldn’t seem to get him feet under him. He stumbled down the hallway, dragged half off-balance the entire way. His mind seemed to be caught somewhere between his explicit vocabulary and the never-ending questions squirming through his brain. Fucking why the shit would any-fucking-mother-fuck want to ask them to remember shit when they fucking didn’t have the shit in the first place? Damn! 

He heard the others being dragged behind him. The hallway opened up into a wider area. There were no windows but there were some grimy fluorescent lights on the wall dimly casting a yellow glow over the space. The floor was still concrete but along one wall there was what looked like several cages made out of iron bars set into the walls. The ceiling was relatively low, old wooden beams crossing the space. 

A jangle of keys sounded next to Michael as one of the men carrying him along chose a key and unlocked a heavy-duty lock from the first cage, thrusting Michael inside. 

Ow! Fuck! He stumbled a bit, his headache stabbing into his temple. The cell was small, maybe three paces wide and two back. The door opened inward, lessening the space. A bundle of rags lay on the floor at the back of the cell like a makeshift bed. Michael turned as the door clanged and he saw the man jamming the lock shut. 

Geoff was thrown into the cell next to his; bars clanging as other doors were opened and closed. The man with the grey blazer swept into the room holding up his hand at the men who were trying to shove Ryan into a cell, the tall man kicking his heels against the floor. The men stopped their efforts, turning to look at their leader expectantly. Ryan stumbled at the sudden change. 

“Step one of an interrogation,” the man’s voice cut through the air like cold steel, “inform the subject what you wish to know. I’ve done that. Next, threaten them. Done. The third step is the one I disagree with. Supposedly I should offer a deal. But the thing is, I don’t do deals.” His ice blue eyes seemed to glow even in the faint light and Michael looked over to see Jack, Geoff and Jeremy down the row from him and all staring. The grey man paced a little in front of the cells, stopping in front of Geoff’s cell. 

“My sources tell me you are the one in charge. Therefore, I know you know what I need. So, here’s one deal I will make.” His tone somehow took on a darker inflection and Michael watched, heart in his throat again as Geoff tried to stare down the man in charge. “I promise,” the man spat the words out gleefully as if happy to deliver the news. “I promise you that I will torture all your friends in this room until I get the answer I am looking for.”

Michael could see the pallor in Geoff’s face as he heard those words. It took Michael a minute to realize that those words meant they would all be hurt. And hurt badly. He felt the blood leave his own face as well. 

The blue-eyed man gestured behind him and the men around Ryan dragged him to a side of the room, one of them snapping a pair of handcuffs over his wrists and another tying a length of rope to that before flinging it over a rafter. A group of men grabbed the other end and pulled, Ryan’s hands getting hoisted over his head as he tried to pull back. More hands ripped his shirt over his head until it hung behind Ryan’s neck. A rage kindled in Michael’s stomach and he flew at the bars in front of him, banging on them furiously.

“Let him go! We don’t fucking have what you want! We don’t even know what you—!” A man nearby swung a baseball bat against the bars, forcing Michael to back up a bit. 

The blue-eyed man continued as if there had been no interruption. Ryan hung from his hands, feet barely able to touch the ground as the rope was tied off on a hook in the wall. “If I hear anything other than what I want to hear, I’ll be more inclined to send one of you off to the rogues. And believe me,” the man laughed maniacally again, “you don’t want to know what those sick fucks are capable of. You are all welcome to answer correctly, telling me that you know where my property is. Until you do, however, Red here,” he gestured to a large and muscled man standing at his side, “will take it out on your friend!” 

The man called Red swung what looked like a metal pipe in his hand and with a hand signal from the grey man he started circling Ryan, who twisted, trying to keep track of him with his eyes. The black-clothed men seemed to seep away down hallways and out through doors as if they didn’t want to play any more of a part in this.   
“Leave him alone,” Geoff said quietly, begging. 

The blue-eyed man laughed again, turning to stalk towards a door at the opposite side of the room. “Tell me if they speak, Red. Until then, go to town. And the rogues are only allowed to take one of them!” With that their captor left the room, leaving the open space empty except for the menacing presence of Red.

Red spoke, his voice holding a quiet and deep authority to it. “Where is it?” He was looking right at Ryan who shook his head as much as he was able to. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Red sighed, hefted the pipe and swung. 

The sound of metal hitting flesh was a sound that wouldn’t leave Michael’s sleep for months. Ryan cried out in pain, swinging slightly from the hit. Jeremy flinched noticeably in his cell down the row while Jack and Geoff both looked frozen with shock. “I don’t know anything!” Ryan was yelling, “I don’t know! I don’t know!” The second smack sounded if anything worse than the first and Michael shook uselessly at the bars in front of him before pacing back and forth in the small space. His voice seemed to be gone, taken from him by these brutes who had the wrong people. 

The third smack and a hissing groan from Ryan filled the space, and Michael was soon back at the bars, words forcing themselves roughly from his throat. “Leave him alone, you sick fuck! We don’t fucking know about whatever the hell you’re looking for!” 

Red stopped for a second, leaning on his pipe and regarding Ryan whose face was red and screwed up with pain. Michael could see the red marks from where Ryan had gotten hit and he had no doubt it would at least bruise horribly if the beating hadn’t given him internal injuries. 

Red chuckled softly, then reached up and pulled off his mask to reveal oily jet-black hair over a pair of cunning eyes. His face was full of wrinkles giving away his age but at the same time the light in the room made it seem as if his face had fissures lining it and that he somehow wasn’t real. 

Red’s voice filled the room again. “These masks are so hot, I don’t know how the others manage it.” He tossed the black cloth aside, swinging the pipe back up to his shoulder. “Now where were we?” 

“I don’t know anything,” Ryan said, his words hoarse. 

There was a pause. “I don’t believe you,” Red said. 

Geoff banged on the bars of his cage angrily, frustrated at his inability to do anything. “He can’t tell you what you want to know if he doesn’t know it, you sick fuck!” His voice was filled with a tone Michael had never heard in him before. Michael was known for getting overly angry but it was a rare day when Geoff showed the same signs. 

A door across the room banged open, hitting the wall so hard that the air seemed to reverberate. Michael jumped as did the others in the cages. Red seemed unconcerned, turning passively to see three figures stalking into the room. To describe them in one word, Michael would have to say scary. The men glared around the space, seeming to exude some kind of animalistic violence with every step as if the wrong word would cause them to lash out and never let go until you died. 

The leader of the three was around Michael’s height with a nose so crooked it must have been broken multiple times. He was thin but Michael could see the muscles in his wiry arms and as the man smiled around the room, the light picked up the glinting of a gold tooth. He might have been handsome if not for the malice in his face.

The second man was tall and muscled, built like a linebacker with long hair that trailed down his back. He had a weak chin that somehow managed to disappear into his neck. His eyes were a watery black and he had scars covering his skin as if he were sewn together by some ruthless scientist. 

The third man had narrow shoulders and a potbelly, wiry hairs standing up from his mostly bald scalp. His face reminded one of a rat, with a pointed nose and an almost constant sneer emphasizing his overbite. He held his hands in front of him like claws and Michael could hear him breathing from across the room. One eye was clouded white, making him look insane. 

The three strutted across the area and Red watched them come closer as if watching a pack of uninteresting bugs cross the floor. 

The leader of the three spoke, his voice nasal and squeaky. “We heard we had company, Red. Why don’t you let us share a bit?” 

The third man snickered gleefully. The second man added his voice to the silence, surprisingly high for his stature. “Sharing is caring, Red.” The third man snickered again. 

Red sighed, as if interrupted in something by a small child, before turning dramatically and sarcastically to the wall of cages. “Gentlemen,” he started, sarcastically waving his pipe around like a baton, “let me introduce you to the rogues. Evil bastards, criminals, general lowlifes…” The third rogue snickered again. So these are the rogues? Michael thought to himself, remembering the threat that Red would throw one of them to the rogues. 

Red turned back to the three. “Blue says you can only take one of them,” he stated coolly. The three shifted, the third hissing through his teeth. The leader spoke up, his voice whining and cold at the same time. 

“But you have so many!”

“Blue’s rules not mine.” 

“Blue’s rules…blue rules,” the third man started chanting quietly, cracking his neck.

The second man spoke up from where he stood menacingly. “Let us pick, then. The last one was…not strong enough.” 

The leader caught on, stalking closer to Red. “Yeah! Let us pick! You owe us that much since you could have told us about them the minute they got here and now we’re late on the draw.”

“That’s your fault, not mine!” Red said, staring right back at the leader. “But go ahead and choose one, and quickly. I have a job to do.”

With those words the three wheeled around the face the cages, stalking up so they were close to the bars. Michael suddenly felt like a piece of meat being sold, the three eyeing up him and the others as if they were prizes to be had and not people. The third man stood in front of Michael’s cage, snickering softly to himself. His one good eye stared at Michael, making him uncomfortable. 

“Clock’s found one he likes,” the second man said, coming to join the third in front of Michael’s cage. His eyes wandered up and down Michael’s body. Michael backed up to the back of his cage, looking over to meet Geoff’s worried face. The leader of the three strutted over from where he was looking at Jeremy, also staring at Michael. His golden tooth seemed to wink from his grimy mouth. 

The leader of the three ran an eager hand through his greasy hair before turning to Red. “We’ll take this one.” Red rolled his eyes as Clock seemed to bounce on the balls of his feet, walking over to the door of Michael’s cage and unlocking the lock. The metal door swung open and for a second Michael considered trying to escape but the second rogue was already in his cell. He tried to dodge the rogue’s grabbing hands but got trapped in the corner of his cell, adrenaline coursing under his skin. Fuck! Strong hands grabbed at him.

“Leave him alone!” Michael heard Geoff yell, similar shouts coming from his other friends. A huge hand grabbed his arm, hard enough to bruise and Michael sucked in a pained breath. He could feel the power in this man, enough strength in his grip alone to shake him around one-handed like a rag doll. He dug his feet into the floor, trying to get away but the rogue pulled him along like he was a child. 

The leader of the trio turned and led the way across the room with Clock bouncing behind him, the black wires of his hair twirling in the air as if trying to escape. The second rogue followed, dragging Michael in his wake.

Michael looked over his shoulder, back at his friends, kicking his feet uselessly against the floor. What was going to happen to them? What was going to happen to him? What in the hell were these people after? It had to be a mistake. Geoff, Jack, Jeremy and even Ryan from his precarious position were looking after him as he was dragged away. 

“Better say your goodbyes now,” Red said ominously, his voice echoing through the room Michael was being pulled out of, “because odds are you won’t ever see him again… alive, that is.” With those words Michael was pulled through the doorway and the door clanged shut behind them with a bang. 

************************

Gavin stared despondently at the floor as the clock on the wall ticked past 6am. The police station around him hummed quietly at this early hour, the bustle of officers asking him question after question fading as he finally got a break. 

Michael was missing, grabbed off the street right in front of him. His memory of what happened was blurry and missing details, remembering more about Michael’s shouts for him to run and the pain in his legs and chest as he ran faster than he had ever run before, all the way back to the office. 

It didn’t help that when he got to the Achievement Hunter office, no one was there other than Trevor working at one of the computers. He had looked up when Gavin burst in demanding to know where the others were, looking lost at his sudden seriousness. 

Then there was the police asking questions that he couldn’t answer like the height of the attackers, or what weapons there were. The other members of Achievement Hunter were called, the detective in charge of the case, a Detective Segski worried they might be at risk as well. Then came the news that most of them were apparently off the grid, their whereabouts unknown and while they were not technically missing, according to the detective, he still set an APB out for their localization. Just like that, Geoff, Jack, Jeremy and Ryan were gone just like Michael.

Gavin was inundated with more questions about the car make and color, the number of attackers, going over the events of that fateful minute over and over until Gavin couldn’t see straight let alone remember new information. And now it was the next morning, the sleepless night sapping his energy and his spirits. 

Upon hearing a voice behind him, he randomly thought it was Geoff and turned, expecting to see his friend and boss. It was Segski, the detective, wearily sending a couple officers home. Seeing Gavin’s expectant expression the man sighed, wiping a hand down his face. “I’m sorry, we don’t have any news. One of my boys is currently looking through traffic camera footage from the area of the attack, trying to find the vehicle you described. We are currently waiting to see if this is a ransom demand or otherwise. Given the relative fame of your company, it would make sense for this to be a targeted attack. We are doing our best to find your friend.”

Gavin nodded slowly at the update, wishing that this detective would stop talking to him and go do something to find Michael but at the same time finding his presence reassuring. “What about Geoff and the others?” 

“I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” the detective answered before standing. “I will be putting you in protective custody until we find out what is going on. You were obviously also a target and this will hopefully prevent them from coming back and trying to get you as well.” Gavin nodded at the news and the detective walked away, leaving him once again staring at the floor as the seconds ticked by. Where were his colleagues? Where were his friends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. They keep me writing! Any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks!


	4. Violations and Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael is at the mercy of the rogues who have claimed him as their prize. Things might go better if the rogues actually had any mercy to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning!! Reader discretion is strongly advised!!
> 
> There are explicit descriptions of RAPE in this chapter. If that is triggering for you, go down to past the break and read from there. You will be caught up with the other captured Achievement Hunters that way.

Michael hung from the hand of the second rogue, his feet barely touching the ground as he was dragged along a dim hallway. The leader of the trio walked backwards in front of him, his golden tooth seeming to glow in the half-light.

“It’s not so often we get a pretty one! Hehehe! You’ll have to excuse our manners. You can call me Nook!” He gave a mocking half-bow before pointing at the mountain of a man dragging Michael along. “This lovely fellow is known as Gent, because he is a perfect gentleman!” Nook laughed sarcastically before pointing rudely at the third. “That crazy devil we call Clock.” Clock wheezed through his teeth. 

The hallway ended suddenly with a sharp turn to the right ending in a dead end but Nook brushed aside an opaque plastic tarp hanging on the wall to reveal a small cranny of a room. The floors and walls were cement, just like the rest of the place but instead of the weak fluorescent lighting, there was a single bulb hanging from the ceiling giving off a weak light. There was one dirty mattress at the far wall but no other furnishings. 

“Home sweet home!” Nook declared, opening his arms as if showing off a five star hotel. “For you at least. We will try to make your stay as…interesting as possible!” Michael’s arm was going numb, his heart racing with adrenaline, a million thoughts running through his head. What would happen now? Everything was out of his control. Everything was overwhelming. These men were disgusting and also apparently insane. 

He had to get out. Now. 

The fury and panic nesting in Michael’s heart gave him the courage to lash out, trying to strike Gent’s face. The large rogue simply grabbed his other arm with his huge fist so tight that Michael could feel his bones grinding together. Then the air was knocked out of his lungs as he was tossed against the floor. Without a second to respond, the monstrous hands were back on his arms and he felt completely powerless as he sailed through the air, rolling roughly to a halt against the cement floor, the scabs on his forearms opening up again and leaving streaks on the concrete as he tried to get up. 

“Oh, honey!” Michael heard Nook cry behind him in a taunting voice, the pet name making him sick to his stomach. “Don’t be that way!” He felt a hand grab the back of his shirt and he struggled as the collar choked him. He landed dead center on the filthy mattress, his ribs protesting at the rough treatment. He felt the presence of Gent hovering over him before the large hands were holding him down. He struggled to breathe as his head was pressed forward and down into the old mattress. 

Clock’s bony fingers were around his wrist, dragging his arm over his head with surprising strength. He felt a piece of metal tighten around his wrist. He pulled uselessly against it, the metal digging into his skin and Gent’s weight making it a struggle to breathe. 

Michael could feel Nook taking off his shoes, his feet suddenly freezing in the open air. The pressure on his back suddenly vanished and he sucked in a full breath, pushing away from the filthy mattress with his unrestrained hand, looking up at the three men standing over him. He glanced over to see his wrist handcuffed to a metal hook set into the cement wall. 

Frustration and fury lit in him again. “Fuck! Let me go you mother fuckers!” he yelled at his captors, pulling at the restraint. The three rogues just watched him as Michael pulled himself into a sitting position awkwardly, trying to pull harder against his stuck hand. Michael cursed as his wrist complained with the pressure, tears coming unbidden to his eyes. He gasped as his wrist throbbed, letting up on the pulling, angrily glaring at his captors. 

“Yes, he will do nicely,” Nook commented and Michael realized with horror that Gent had a knife in his hand. Michael shrieked as the three men jumped on top of him, Nook grabbing his ankles, pulling them out from under him so he sprawled on his back. Clock had his gnarled fingers in Michael’s curly hair, holding his head down as Gent leaned over his with the knife. With his free arm Michael tried to push the giant away but it was like pushing on a mountain. 

“Get his shirt off!” Nook cried out, a crazed smile on his face. The knife dove towards Michael’s chest and he squirmed as hard as he could to get away before it tore through his Achievement Hunter shirt, ripping it away. He felt cool air on his skin. Pain lanced through him as the knife made contact with his skin, cutting a line down his ribs as Gent hacked at the shirt, not even trying to make the cut neat. The knife bit into his belly too and Michael cried out. It wasn’t a deep cut but Michael felt utterly powerless, at the mercy of these three monsters who seemed to take glee from every one of his struggles. 

“Stop! Let me go!” Michael heard himself yell but with none of the power he had intended, sobs threatening to break out of his throat. The remnants of his shirt hung off his body, pinned under him and only attacked at the sleeve of his bound arm. Gent quickly cut away the remaining fabric, leaving Michael shirtless and feeling very exposed, unable to curl in and defend himself. He stared widely up at his three attackers, Clocks cold hands keeping his head stationary on the filthy mattress, pulling painfully on his hair. 

Nook was breathing hard from holding his legs down, but something in his face made Michael think that maybe it wasn’t the only reason. With one move Nook sprang forward, elbows on Michel’s thighs as his hands worked to unbutton Michel’s jeans. Michael’s already racing heart seemed to jump into hyper drive as he realized belatedly what was happening. He tried to strike out with his feet but to no avail. Nook seemed adept at what he was doing, ripping the zipper down. “Roll him over!” Nook ordered and Michael squirmed desperately, trying to get him legs under him as Gent’s powerful hands flipped him onto his stomach. Nook grabbed his ankles, pulling his feet out from under him again, making him land hard on the mattress. Clock and Gent were holding his shoulders down, their fingers grabbing hard enough to leave bruises. 

The tears came unbidden, spilling out from Michael’s eyes as he felt Nook pulling down his pants. With his free hand he grabbed at his waistband, trying desperately to hold the protective cloth up but Gent grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back with a powerful force. There was a snap and Michael felt pain pour into him from his arm painfully twisted behind him. The pain was almost intense enough to block out the feelings of his pants and boxers pulled down to his ankles but he couldn’t block out the warm feeling of another man’s spit hit his as or the cold fingers that took the lubricant and rubbed between his cheeks. 

Michael couldn’t move, hands holding his upper body into the filthy mattress, his arm lying beside him, leaking pain into him with every movement. He kicked his legs, trying desperately to get away from the cold fingers that ran over his entrance and the harsh and excited breathing from the man hovering behind him. 

“Shh, honey! Don’t struggle or you’ll only make it hurt more!” Nook muttered behind him, his voice choked with desire. Michael screamed from both pain and shock as Nook pushed a finger in. “Mmm, so tight!” Suddenly the finger was gone and Michael groaned at the lingering pain, desperately hoping it was over. His heart dropped as he heard Nook unzipping his own pants. Michael tucked his head against his restrained arm, trying to block out the world, but that didn’t stop him from feeling the warm head of the lead rogue’s penis slap him in the ass before Nook positioned himself between Michael’s legs, poised at his entrance. 

“Please don’t,” Michael begged through his tears. “Stop! No! Don’t!” The hands on his shoulders gripped even harder with some unseen signal and then Michael screamed as Nook thrust into him, forcing his hole open. Nook paused for a second as Michael’s voice died with the pain, choking itself out as his entire body shook with the intrusion. Michael’s head was empty, broken apart by the brutal intrusion and the pain. He floated in a dark sea of tears and pain. 

Then Nook was moving, thrusting deeper with every push. His warm and sweaty body hovered over Michaels, his rough shirt scratching at Michael’s bare back. The pain stabbed through Michael like some kind of animal and he felt himself simply wishing that it would be over soon. He couldn’t block out the feeling of Nook’s cock sliding inside him, his hips hitting Michael’s ass to create the repetitive sound of flesh hitting flesh, over and over again. He couldn’t stop the sobs from chocking out of his mouth. 

When sudden extra warmth was added to the mix Nook didn’t even slow his movements, if anything rocking forward harder and harder, the whole mattress grinding against the floor with the movement. Michael felt the blood creep down the back of his thighs and cried harder, his sobs muffled in his arm and shadowed by the grunts from the monster above him. 

Nook grabbed Michael’s shoulders, using the leverage to pull himself faster as he reached his peak. With one final thrust, he let himself go inside of his new prize, rocking gently before pulling out. He watched with satisfaction as a mix of cum and blood oozed out of Michael, the young man shaking on the mattress. 

“Such a good fuck!” Nook announced, slapping his hand against Michael’s ass cheek. Michael didn’t even have the energy to flinch. Nook rose to his knees, zipping up his pants and Michael felt the hands on his shoulders gently shift. Was it over? Was the pain done? 

His rapist stood up and seemed to gaze down at him before walking away, his footsteps echoing slightly in the concrete room. “Be good boys,” Nook called back at the other two who were still hovering over Michael, “and don’t ruin him just yet!” There was a pause. “But have fun, boys. It’s not often we get one this nice!” Nook chuckled as he left the room, swiping the plastic aside. 

That’s when Michael felt Gent grab his hips and he realized his nightmare hadn’t ended. It had only just begun. 

Michael struggled against the circlet of metal that held his arm securely, trying to fight but his strength was gone. With one hand Gent reached forward and forced Michael’s head down into the mattress, cutting off Michael’s desperate “No!” Then his muscles froze, stopped working. Michael suddenly couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t look around. The adrenaline that was coursing through his system had failed in its plight to fight or flee and had gone for freeze instead. Michael was trapped in his body, awake during surgery but with all the pain. 

He couldn’t move as Gent rolled him to his side, lifting his leg to gain a better angle before plunging into him. Michael couldn’t make the screaming words that begged for the large man to stop his penetration and his attack. His mind was so caught up that he almost forgot Clock was still there. Suddenly the hands that had been holding his shoulder disappeared and reappeared in his hair, lifting Michael’s head so he had to look at the third rogue. Clock was smiling as his hands pulled at Michael’s hair, Gent’s thrusts moving Michael back and forth on the mattress. 

Michael still couldn’t move a muscle as Clock took one hand out of his hair and started unbuttoning his pants. Michael couldn’t do anything as Clock’s dick sprang free, already fully erect, hitting Michael in the chin. Nausea swam in his insides as Clock pressed closer, the tip of his dick hitting Michael in the face with each of Gent’s thrusts. The man behind him was grunting and Michael couldn’t differentiate the pain in his body anymore. There was too much. 

Clock grabbed him chin, roughly forcing his mouth open and Michael couldn’t do anything as Clock pushed his cock between his lips, the salty taste of pre-cum worsening the nausea. Michael coughed as Clock pushed deeper, tears coming unbidden once more to his eyes as he could do nothing to stop the attack. He physically couldn’t move to get away. Gent’s rough hands grabbed onto Michael’s hips in an attempt to drive deeper and Michael felt him push deeper than Nook had gone, tearing into him. He couldn’t breath well through his nose but wasn’t prepared for Clock to start thrusting into his mouth. 

Michael chocked, his head at an awkward sideways angle, his arm pulling him one way, Gent pushing and pulling him while Clock bore down on him from above. Claustrophobia threatened to strangle Michael in his powerlessness. Clock thrust again into Michael’s mouth, hitting the back of his throat before letting out a keening sound and soon he repeated the motion, getting into a rhythm. Michael could not breathe, his brief breaths through his nose snuffed out as Clocks oily pubes hit him in the face. 

Powerless. The pain. Motionless. Fear. Sweat. The heat of the two men over him. 

Shame. Tears. Nausea. Breath. Choking. Gasping. Internally screaming. 

Clock finished first, grabbing Michael’s hair and pressing deep into his throat as his dick released its load. Michael couldn’t breathe for a solid couple of seconds before Clock pulled out, spot swimming in front of his eyes. Michael coughed desperately, a combination of spit, cum and snot drizzling down his face and he tried to catch his breath. Gent finished suddenly, letting out a loud groan before slowing and pulling out. 

Gent lay there a moment, just behind Michael on the mattress and Michael could feel his huge hand gently running up and down his thigh. Then the uncomfortable sweaty warmth was away as Gent kneeled, pulling his pants up. Without Gent pulling him back, Michael rolled onto his stomach again, unintentionally and still unable to move. He was shaking. He knew he was shaking. He could feel the pain from what Nook and Gent had done to him radiating up through his pelvis, and he could still feel blood slowly trickling down his leg. His mouth felt foul, his throat raw as if he had been coughing roughly for days. The two remaining rogues were chuckling.

“Nook was right! He is a good fuck!” Gent’s unusually high voice commented. Clock wheezed in response. “Right, fine. Do your thing and then we have to go finish that other job. We can come back later. Don’t take too long.” Michael heard Gent’s footsteps walking away and waited with his heart in his mouth, his mind tired, for what Clock was doing above him. There was a click and then he felt Clock straddling him, sitting down on the small of his back. Michael wheezed at the sudden weight, gasping in breath again.

Clock chuckled above him before leaning forward and whispering in his ear. “Count. We count here. One and one is two. Two and one is three. We can’t forget now can we? We can’t forget so we write it down. One and one is two. Two and one is three…” Clock’s voice faded into indecipherable mutterings as he sat back up. Michael felt the fear as a living thing, crawling all over his skin. They were all mad, all crazy, but Clock was too far gone to be called remotely sane anymore. There was a moment of nothing, leaving Michael hanging is if he were at the top of a long fall before he felt something sharp press into his back over his right shoulder blade. 

The pain exploded as Clock dragged his knife in a line down Michael’s back. Through his immobility, Michael almost managed to make the scream that stayed stuck in his throat. The knife left, the pain from the slice white hot and cold at the same time. 

Then the knife struck again, millimeters to the right of the first one and then a third next to that one. Michael wished he could pass out. He wished most of all that he could be anywhere but here. He wished he were dead. Michael waited for the bite of the knife a fourth time but it didn’t come and suddenly Clock’s weight disappeared off his back. 

The plastic moved before Michael realized that the rogues were gone and he was alone in the small cement room, his pants round his ankles and cuts on his body. Feeling as if he were moving through molasses, Michael managed to move his arm a little bit, flexing his fingers on the arm that still throbbed from where Gent had twisted it. With the first movement, others came as well and Michel shakily ducked over the side of the mattress as far as the cuff would allow, emptying his stomach onto the cement floor. All that came out was a little bile, reminding him he hadn’t eaten in however many hours since lunch the day before. 

His body was shaking, muscles quaking to life after leaving his brain to handle the trauma without them. Shakily, Michael wiped his face with his hand, wiping it on the mattress before reaching down and pulling up his boxers and pants. The fabric was painfully rough on his damaged skin. His shirt was still tangled under him in a broken lump of torn fabric. 

Michael looked back as he felt something warm on his side before realizing that blood from the cuts in his back was running down. His stomach jolted, a new fear rising in his mind. The cuts were bad, this much blood was bad. With a series of shaky movements, he rolled enough to the side of pull the mangled mess of his green shirt out from under him, with his free hand trying to swat the material onto his back where the cuts were, movements limited with the cuff on his other wrist still cutting into his skin and holding him down. 

With a frustrated groan Michael dropped the blood-spattered shirt onto the mattress at approximately the right place before rolling on top of it, pressing his shoulder blade into it. He could feel the three cuts on his back complain but he let his body weight lend pressure on the wound, hoping laying on the cuts would be enough to stop them from bleeding. He kept the t-shirt as a barrier between the filthy mattress and his cuts too. Lying on his back made him feel vulnerable again, sore from the assault, but before he could do much of anything, he felt sleep coming on. Michael cursed his body. Why not earlier? Why now? Darkness overtook him and he passed out, his shaking body lying still on the mattress. 

**************************************************************************************

Red paced in front of the cells, patience limited as he wasn’t getting any answers from the four of them there. Ryan swung limply from the tethers, his side swelling with bruises from the hours of assault. Geoff felt numb, almost unable to believe what was happening. His throat was sore from the extended periods of swearing and shouting at Red. 

With a sudden turn, Red strode towards the door at the side of the room, hitting a button to one side before pacing back. On his third pace around a group of black clad men walked in, surrounding Ryan and pulling him down from where he hung before throwing him almost violently back into his cell. Jeremy clung to the bars between his cage and Ryan’s trying to see if his friend was okay. Ryan gasped feebly, curling around his side and spitting bloody saliva out of his mouth. 

Red snarled slightly at them, and Geoff once again struggled to think of an answer that would get them out of this scenario. As hard as he tried, there was nothing that would save them. He had no idea what they were trying to find, no idea what to say to have them released. And now Ryan was hurt badly. 

Red continued pacing and Geoff could almost see the gears turning in his mind. “Maybe you won’t speak in front of the others. Is that it?” Red was snarling, almost animalistic now with crazy eyes peering at them from his rugged face. He whipped his voice at his followers; “Take that one to the water room, then spread the others out”, he said, first pointing at Jack and then sweeping his arm at the others. The black clad men opened Jack’s cell and Jack stood abruptly from where he had been sitting. The group pushed him roughly against the wall, causing him to call out as they fastened a zip-tie around his wrists. Then two of the black clad men pulled him out of the cell and then out of sight around a corner. Then Jeremy’s cell was being pulled open and the newest Achievement Hunter was also manhandled out of sight. 

There were only two black-clad men now and Red waved them away from Ryan’s cell where he lay curled on the ground. “Leave him! Get that one!” Geoff watched apprehensively as they opened his door and held his hands up as the men came at him with a vengeance, wrenching his wrists together and tightening the zip-tie until it stung. Geoff tripped as they hauled him out of the cell and he tried to look back at Ryan as they hauled him away, trying to get across the idea that he was trying to figure out a way to get them all free but he was around the corner before he could see his friend again. 

The hallway echoed with voices and there was a shout that sounded a lot like Jack before Geoff was pushed into a small room the size of a closet with no window and no light in the ceiling. The floor, walls and ceiling were all cement and Geoff turned around just in time to have the heavy door slammed shut. The small closet-sized room became pitch black in an instant, and Geoff couldn’t see anything. There wasn’t even any light coming in from around the door.

He wandered forward until his bound hands could touch the door and then walked carefully around the space, following the wall until he could get a feel for the room. It was small, barely three paces back from the door and two across. Geoff’s eyes were wide open but he couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t hear anything either. The silence and darkness pressed in on him until he sunk down in a corner, closing his eyes against the nothingness around him. 

He couldn’t help the tears as they came, he couldn’t help the feeling of utter powerlessness as it overtook him in the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry!   
> Also, please leave kudos and a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated!


	5. Police Water Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The police have finally agreed that five of the Achievement Hunters are missing. They are ready to start looking for the abducted men but can't possibly understand what their waiting has allowed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: torture and rape. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Gavin ran through the office, Matt Bragg and Trevor behind him, heading towards the parking lot. He had just gotten a call from the lead detective. They had finally decided that the other Achievement Hunters were actually missing after they had found Jeremy’s car abandoned and Griffon had threatened to break some arms. 

The drive couldn’t be tenser as they made their way through the ten AM traffic of Austin to the police department. Gavin was angry and confused. Why weren’t they out looking for Michael? He had begged that they go out and find the other Achievement Hunters the minute he heard they couldn’t get into contact with them but nothing had happened. Matt was rambling in the backseat, asking questions full of empty assurances. They had to be okay. It was just a misunderstanding. This was all some sort of joke, wasn’t it? 

It seemed like ages since Gavin had seen that car pulling away with Michael inside of it. It seemed like years since he had heard Michael scream behind him as he fell. Gavin could still remember the burning of his legs as he ran harder than he ever had before but it all seemed like a dream. 

They pulled into the police department, parking hastily before running inside. Given their expressions the front desk just pointed to the correct waiting area. Gavin’s heart jumped as he saw the other Rooster Teeth staff already waiting there. Burnie and Ashley were sitting on a bench, worried expressions on their faces. Lindsey and Meg were talking in one corner and they hurried over to Gavin the minute they saw him, giving him hugs. 

“Lindsey, I’m so sorry!” Gavin heard himself saying. “I couldn’t do anything, and—"

“Shut up!” Lindsey commanded. “It’s not your fault!” There was conviction in her voice but Gavin could still see the uncertainty in her face. Her husband was missing. Seeing them there, Griffon and Lori headed over their way, embracing Gavin and the others. 

“Kat and Caiti are coming. Kat was in Boston visiting family so she’s flying down as soon as possible.” Griffon was explaining the status for Jeremy and Jack’s wives, seemingly as a status update but Gavin, having known her for years, could see the tension in her face since Geoff, her husband, was missing. 

Meg was turning to Lori. “I didn’t even know Ryan was missing! I was hoping that he was just late for work again!” 

“He never came home last night,” Lori explained. 

Burnie and Ashley came over to where their group stood all together, lending their support. Gavin was the first to notice the chief detective for Michael’s case come into the waiting room. He gestured for the others to be quiet as Segski called for silence. 

“Thanks for coming on such short notice.” The detective sounded tired and Gavin wondered if he had slept or not since the night before. Gavin definitely hadn’t, heading straight to work the following morning so he could be around people. “We have determined that the following people are officially missing: Michael Jones, Jeremy Dooley, Jack Pattillo, Geoffrey Ramsey, and James Haywood.”

“He goes by Ryan,” Meg corrected quietly but let the detective continue. 

“Michael Jones was the first to go missing, his abduction witnessed by Mr. Gavin Free. Since then we have collected statements about the other men and determined that they are all indeed missing. Mr. Dooley’s car was found abandoned with signs of a struggle and we also found this in the parking lot of your offices.” The detective held up a wallet that looked familiar. 

Lori gasped quietly. “That’s Ryan’s,” she said. Segski nodded, obviously aware of who the wallet belonged to. 

“It has been determined that the disappearance of Mr. Pattillo and Mr. Ramsey, given the circumstances, is very much not in character. Our primary guess right now is that the same group took them all. We are working right now to determine who that group is. In cases of ransom, the call usually comes earlier than this but we are holding out hope that such a call does happen. In that hope, we would like to tap all of your phones to make sure if the perpetrators do call, we are able to track the calls. This is obviously not just a simple kidnapping since the connection between the victims is the workplace.” The detective paused a moment before continuing. “We would like to take individual statements from you all. It could help the search.” 

Detective Segski motioned and two other officers came in, calling names and leading those individuals away to take their statements. Gavin sat down abruptly in one of the chairs, trying to restrain himself. He wanted to ask what was being done to find them. His first instinct after losing Michael had been to call Geoff or Jack. He wanted to talk to Jeremy or go with Ryan on a drive as a distraction. But they were all gone. He didn’t want to intrude on the detective’s plan but he didn’t see any good that would come from talking. He wanted the police out on the streets looking for anything. 

While Gavin was willing to trust that the police had the best plan, Griffon was there to make sure. “So, are you looking for them?” Her question exploded across the space as she confronted the detective. To his credit, Segski didn’t wince. 

“Yes, ma’am. We are following all available leads right now.” Gavin leaned back in the seat as the detective led Griffon away to get her statement. Or more likely her opinions on what they should be doing to find her husband. Lindsey and Meg sat to either side of him. 

“They’ll be okay,” Meg said uncertainly. 

“Yeah,” Lindsey said with slightly more conviction. “They’re going to be fine.” Gavin nodded, hoping desperately that his friends were all right. They’ll be okay. They’re fine. If it’s ransom they won’t hurt them anyway. They will be all right. 

*****************************************************************************

Jack came to, sputtering back into the world, coughing up the water in his lungs before turning his head as much as we was able to and vomiting. His arms and legs were restrained to the chair he sat in; the chair was pulled back at an angle and leaning against a sink. Jack’s eyes swam with the cold water that covered his face, joining his tears as he tried to cough. His glasses were gone, he didn’t know where. As his vision cleared Red’s face swam blurrily into sight. 

“Still not eager to share?” 

Jack gasped, wanting desperately to convince this monster that he had the wrong people, that they didn’t even know why they were here. He desperately wanted to get away. He didn’t want to drown again. His lungs were still burning from the last assault. “I don’t know anything. Christ, none of us know anything!” Jack’s voice rasped past his raw throat and the conviction he tried to put into his voice failed to convince the monstrous man before him. 

“Wrong answer,” Red snarled before tossing the soaking rag back on top of Jack’s face. Jack took in as deep a breath as he could before the water came pouring in. Again he tried desperately to hold his breath until his lungs burned and when he did try to draw breath he got nothing but water, leaving him coughing desperately as water coursed up his nose, into his stomach and his lungs. He was drowning. Again. 

He could hear Red speaking but couldn’t make out the words through the water in his ears. Black dots swam in front of his vision and it seemed like he was going to pass out yet again before the rag was whipped from his face, leaving him sputtering and vomiting yet again. 

****************************************************************************

Michael woke up slowly, feeling desperately cold and shivering. He was curled in a ball on the dirty mattress, congealed blood sticking nauseatingly to his skin as he shifted to look around the room. The dim light bulb seemed overly bright overhead and the room seemed bigger. His muscles complained under him, muscles he didn’t even know he had screaming in discomfort. 

Michael sucked in a breath as he shivered in the cold air of the room; his shoulder throbbing where Clock had it cut open. He shifted again, trying to look over his shoulder to see the cuts but with that he leaned on the mess of his shirt that was stuck to the cuts, ripping it free from the congealed blood and seeping wounds. He gasped, overwhelmed by pain as warm blood pooled again on his back. He was distracted as the plastic covering over the doorway was thrust to the side. Michael’s throat seemed to close as the trio of rogues entered into the room once again.

“Finally awake!” Nook sneered with Clock snickering behind him. Gent seemed even taller than he had before. The trio stalked over towards him and Michael pushed himself up and back against the wall, pulling uselessly against the handcuff, feeling the bruising on his wrist complaining shrilly. 

The cold air against his torso was forgotten as the three surrounded him again. Michael’s hand closed into a fist, ready to punch them if they came closer but he was not prepared for Nook to lean forward suddenly and slap him. His head snapped to the side, his ear ringing and he curled in on himself as another blow rained down on his head. He held out his hand, trying to shield his face but his wrist was grabbed cruelly in what he already could tell was Gent’s strong grip. His arm complained as it was yanked and twisted again and before Michael could notice he was on his front and Nook was sitting on his back, smashing him into the mattress, into his own blood. 

The desperate fight that had flooded his system was turning itself to lead and Michael could feel himself freezing again. He could feel Gent grabbing at his pants again. He could feel Clock’s fingers in his hair again. He could hear Nook undoing his pants, slipping back from where he sat on Michael’s back to position himself behind him.   
Trapped in his body, trapped in his mind. He could do nothing as Nook prepared to rape him again. He couldn’t even struggle against Gent’s tight hold on him. The pain came again as Nook pushed himself in, slamming Michael into the mattress. Blood was already starting to run. 

Michael tried to separate himself from the pain that battered him. He took his pain and pictured putting it in a desk drawer, slamming that feeling away. Then he took his panic and confusion and fear, slamming those emotions into separate drawers. He took the feel of the dirty mattress under him and slammed that drawer as well, left only with quiet thoughts, drifting through nothing. Dimly he was still aware of Nook climaxing and trading once more with Gent while Clock pried open his mouth. He took the tastes and those pains and shoved them into separate drawers. 

Michael floated, separate from what was happening to his body. Dimly he wondered what the fuck was going on with him. Why was he freezing instead of fighting? Michael’s mind shied away from reality, leaving him locked inside. If only this had happened last time. It seemed like an eternity and no time and all. Time didn’t have real meaning anymore. Michael couldn’t summon up any emotions, having them all tucked away so he wasn’t surprised or scared when Nook was ready for round two as soon as Gent was done. 

Michael shut the pain away from the four added slices in his back until he was alone in the room again. Feeling came back all at once with movement again. Pain slammed into his back and he bit his lip as he struggled to pull up his pants. Blood rushed through his ears. Everything felt surreal. 

There was even more blood this time and moving his legs at all was incredibly painful. He looked around for his shirt to press into his back once more but couldn’t find it, figuring that one of the rogues must have taken it. He was shaking again. He couldn’t remember a time before this dark room. Logically he knew that his time here couldn’t have been that long but his mind refused to give him a picture of his life prior to being handcuffed to this filthy and bloody mattress. His skin was layered with sweat and with blood, both old and new. 

Michael waited anxiously for his body to send him to sleep again but he stayed painfully awake and aware of everything. Thankfully, his mind rehashed its previous trick and soon he was completely dissociated from his surrounding and his reality, floating in his own mind. 

Painless. But not free and definitely not all right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos and a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated!


	6. A Ransom Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue has finally figured out that they don't know anything and plans to ransom them back to Rooster Teeth. But what about Michael? Where is he?

Ryan was getting the shit beat out of him again by Red when Blue came thundering into the room. His head swam and he could feel blood from a cut in his hairline dripping down his face. 

“Stop!” Blue ordered loudly and Red stepped obediently back from the chair Ryan was tied to. He turned to his chief torturer, speaking quieter but Ryan could still pick up what was being said. “Our informants were misinformed. These idiots don’t know anything about the package.” His voice was full of simmering rage, but Ryan couldn’t tell if it was aimed at Red, at them or at those informants. At the same time, Ryan felt relief flood through his system. No more questions they couldn’t answer. No more pain, hopefully. His sides shook with pain, his head hammering away at his skull. 

“Do you want me to take care of them?” Red asked as if offering to go to the grocery store instead of offering to do something much worse. Ryan almost felt sorry for those informants. Almost. 

“No,” Blue answered. “I’ll have you kill them after they do their stupid ransom plan. These men they had us collect are part of a large company. They will want them back so we’ll offer them up for ransom. At least try to make some money given the mistake.” 

Ryan held his breath, waiting for the order on what he and his friends would be doing. He didn’t have to wait long. “Put these fools back in the cells in the keep. Make sure they look presentable.” Ryan could feel Blue’s eyes on him but he made sure to keep his head lowered. “Take this one to Junior. Hopefully that boy will be able to clean him up a bit. We will put out the demands and proof of life at 10am. Don’t be late.” 

Red nodded as his boss turned to leave, speaking up just as Blue reached the door. “What about the one the rogues took?”

Blue sighed, obviously having forgotten about Michael. Ryan listened harder, eager to know how his friend was doing. “Well,” the leader said, clearly thinking hard. “If they haven’t killed him yet, have Junior clean him up. The rogues can have him back after we take his picture and all that.” Blue swept out of the room as Ryan’s thoughts swam.

If he was still alive? Could Michael be dead? Ryan’s stomach dropped and he wished he knew how his other friends were doing. 

*************************************************************************

Geoff had fallen asleep. It seemed like hours or days had passed but he couldn’t tell. He was woken when the door banged open, the dim hallway light stabbing into his eyes, making him hold up his hand to make it less intense. A group of men came in, hauling him to his feet and leading him back down the hallway to the bigger room with the cages. He was pushed back into his original cell. 

Geoff’s eyes were just starting to lose the bright spots when a pile of clothing was thrust into his arms and the cell door was locked. “Get dressed!” A voice barked before the group left. Geoff looked at the clothes apprehensively. Gray shirt, dark sweatpants, but it all seemed clean. Shrugging Geoff pulled off his sweaty shirt he had been wearing for two days, before pulling on the new shirt that fit surprisingly well. He looked around a little self-consciously before stripping off his pants and pulling on the sweatpants but there was no one around. 

He had just finished folding his original clothes and putting them in a pile by the door when a man crashed through a door on the opposite wall. Geoff jumped at the sound, recognizing the man as the leader of the three men who had taken Michael away. 

The man headed straight for his cell as if knowing Geoff would be there, stopping a foot away from the bars. There was a pause as Geoff and the man observed each other. “Come closer!” The man ordered, a sneer on his face. Geoff wished he could punch him. He didn’t trust this man in the slightest. “Come on!” The man coaxed condescendingly, clicking his tongue a bit as if he were calling a dog. “I have a gift for you!” 

Geoff sighed quietly, not knowing what else to do, before slowly approaching the bars. “There we go!” the man snickered. Geoff felt heat rising to his face; the man was acting like he was some kind of animal. “Take it!” The man pressed a wadded bundle close to the bars, holding it out invitingly as if it really were a great gift. His crooked smile almost looked sincere except for the malice in his eyes. 

Curiosity won out over Geoff’s common sense and he snatched the bundle from the man who chuckled, before turning and walking back across the room, slamming the door behind him. Geoff didn’t look to see what he was holding until the man was out of sight. 

Geoff turned the small bundle over in his hands. It felt like cloth but there was some kind of substance making the cloth feel stiff. He caught the edge of a piece and pulled. The bundle slowly pulled open, dropping brownish chips to the floor as the fabric straightened. 

Geoff’s breath caught in his throat. It was an Achievement Hunter shirt, the green material clogged with the substance and ripped in places. It took Geoff a whole minute of staring at the shirt to realize that the substance coating it was blood. As soon as he realized that, it was a second later that he recognized the torn fabric of what was left of the shirt Michael had been wearing. 

Geoff’s heart hammered as he looked at the fabric. Was Michael okay? What was going on? He could feel the panic rising in his chest. Before it could overwhelm him there was a loud sound from down the hallway and Jeremy was hauled into view. He wasn’t struggling so much as the men were pushing him between them. Jeremy struggled to remain standing, his wrists tied behind him. Geoff bundled up the shirt and put it behind him, for some reason hiding it from the men. 

The black-clad group unlocked the cell next to Geoff’s, releasing Jeremy into it before dumping a similar pile of clothes on the ground next to him. The group headed off after locking Jeremy in and silence filled the space again. Jeremy shifted slightly and soon his hands were free, his pocketknife key chain in his hand. 

“They still haven’t taken that away from you, Little J?” Geoff commented softly. Jeremy shook his head. 

“Do you know what’s going on?” Jeremy’s voice was quiet as he picked up the gray shirt to look at it. 

“No idea.” Geoff answered. “But they wanted me to change into the clean clothes.” Jeremy nodded for a moment before dropping the gray shirt and pulling his own over his head hissing slightly as the fabric scraped his skin. Geoff’s skin ran cold as he saw the tracks of new marks covering Jeremy’s side. The marks looked raw, swollen almost, glittering in the light slightly. It took Geoff another second to realize they were burns. 

“Jeremy?” Geoff asked, not even really knowing what his question was. 

“It’s nothing,” his shortest employee hissed back, a little too quickly. Jeremy grabbed the new shirt and pulled it on. 

“That’s not nothing,” Geoff commented. 

Jeremy turned to him fully and Geoff could see the bruise on his left cheek for the first time. “What do you want me to say, Geoff?” Geoff stared at the young man who was looking at him questioningly. “Did you really think they would only question Ryan?” Jeremy dropped his gaze, quickly dropping his own pants before pulling on the sweatpants. Geoff didn’t know what to say, his voice caught in his throat. He was saved from saying anything when there was another commotion down the hall and Jack was dragged into view. 

Jack was soaking wet, his T-shirt clinging to his skin, his beard and hair dripping with water. His glasses were missing and Geoff watched one of his oldest friends get thrown into the cell after Jeremy’s. Yet another pile of clothing hit the ground before the black-clad group disappeared again. Jack stared at the clothes, turning slightly to them before leaning over and retching. Jeremy was at the bars separating their spaces in a heartbeat. 

“Jack! Are you okay?” 

“Jack?” Geoff called. The sound of vomit hitting the ground reached him. 

“What did you do, swallow a lake?” Jeremy asked as nothing but water came out of the bearded Achievement Hunter. Jack leaned against the bars, panting slightly before wiping his mouth with the back of his arm. 

“Not intentionally. Hard not to,” he answered Jeremy. 

“You know, not everyone drinks lakes for fun, Jack.” Geoff peered at his friend. “What did you do, go swimming?” His usual sarcastic humor came out unintentionally, causing his friend to cast an annoyed glance at him. 

Jack almost snapped back but turned to retch again. 

“They questioned you too?” Jeremy asked quietly. The bearded man nodded and Geoff turned away, trying to get his emotions under control. Guilt swam inside him. He hadn’t been questioned. He’d just been locked up in the dark. What had the others gone through?

Jack could feel his stomach still turning from the water in his system. Turning away from Jeremy’s worried gaze, Jack stripped off his wet shirt, gratefully pulling on the grey dry one, the dry fabric warm against his skin. The sweatpants were a little too small but Jack pulled them on anyway. “Where’s Ryan and Michael?” 

Geoff was reminded of the shirt he still held crumpled his hand. “I don’t know where Ryan is,” Geoff answered, pausing a moment. “But I was given this before you two got here,” he held out the shirt to the side of Jeremy’s cell. Jeremy came forward and pulled it through the bars, unfolding it. “It’s Michael’s shirt,” Geoff explained at the man’s confused expression. 

Confusion turned to barely hidden horror on Jeremy’s face. “Is this blood?” 

“Christ, what the hell?” Jack said as he caught sight of the shirt. 

“Is Michael…” Jeremy trailed off. 

“I don’t know,” Geoff answered, the fear evident in his voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment if you enjoyed. Any and all feedback is appreciated!


	7. Hope and Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the ransom coming up, Blue orders the AH members get cleaned up for the ransom photos, but the rogues aren't so keen to give up their prize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T/W: Rape in this chapter. Do not read if it could be triggering for you.

Michael was just finally dozing off, the pain and cold tucked to the back of his exhausted mind, when the plastic was swept away from the door again. Michael jerked upright, until he was sitting, the sudden movement more instinct than intentional. 

His heart slowly dropped back from his throat once he saw that the individual who was entering the room was not one of the rogues. It was an elderly woman, her hair a yellowish gray color that almost glowed in the dim light. She walked towards him slowly and Michael watched her warily as she approached. 

She made a humming noise accompanied by a calming motion. Michael could smell the cigarette smoke on her skin as she hobbled around the mattress to release the cuff from the hook in the ground. Michael tried to think of something to say but his mind was blank, taken up by the pain in his back and ass that had resurged as he reacted to her entering the space. 

She didn’t seem to mind, undoing the handcuff latched to the ground before gently grabbing Michael’s unrestrained hand and cuffing it to the other. The sudden freedom to move his arm after it had been restrained to the floor for seemingly forever was amazing and Michael slowly rotated his shoulder. 

The woman gave another humming sound, then heaved on his arm, trying to get him to stand. She didn’t seem threatening so Michael shakily stood up. He almost fell over, gasping in pain as his joints seized. His legs shook with pain as his skin pulled and bruises flexed. His pants pulled away from the bloody mattress with a sickening crunch, the dried blood crumbling. 

“Where—?” Michael muttered, trying to think past the pain. Maybe the woman didn’t seem threatening. But he was worried about where she was taking him as she led the way across the room with a surprisingly firm grip on the cuffs holding his hands in front of him. 

Without a word, the woman led him down a long hallway, turning down another and pulling him through a doorway into another small cement room. This one had large metal hoops on the wall and sinks along the far side. The floor was damp with what Michael assumed was water. 

The woman led him to one of the hoops on the wall that jutted out into the room, unfastening one of his hands and dragging the cuff through the loop before lifting his wrist up and reattaching it. Michael groaned at the pain spiking through his shoulders. His head was foggy and he realized too late that his chance to possibly escape had vanished. 

The woman sighed sympathetically, rubbing his back before turning away. Michael shifted on his feet as she left the room, silence surrounding him. The hook was high enough on the wall that Michael couldn’t even slouch comfortably. He pulled experimentally on the cuffs, his wrists and shoulders complaining until he stopped. 

The floor was cold against his bare feet and he could feel some liquid seeping down his back but he couldn’t tell if it was blood from the newest slices in his back or some other bodily fluid. Standing up so suddenly from his prone position he had been in for over a day shook his body and he could feel his stomach complaining at the lack of food and wished he could have a drink of water. 

He was really hurting from what the rogues had done to him, standing exacerbating the pain from the bruising and he shifted his weight back and forth trying to find a comfortable position. The hoop above his head allowed him to peer around the room and turn almost 180 degrees each way. The hoop also kept him about half a foot away from the wall and Michael was glad he wasn’t against the cold cement. 

His legs started to shake after about ten minutes standing in the room and it took Michel’s mind a couple of minutes to figure out why. He was used to standing, he stood up every day except for the past couple in confinement. Why was his body refusing to do it now? He figured it was the stress and the lack of real sleep keeping his body from functioning correctly. 

His hands were growing cold and numb from the lack of blood when sounds finally came from the hall. Michael was leaning with his head against the wall, trying to keep himself awake with the cold when the group of black-clad men pulled a man with a hood over his head into the room. 

Michael turned to watch as they hauled the shirtless figure to the opposite side of the room from him and attached him to the wall in the same way as Michael. The men yanked off the hood, revealing blond hair and Michael recognized the man as he pulled on the cuffs and the posse of men exited the room. Silence reigned again in the room save from Ryan pulling uselessly on the metal hoop. He let out a huff as he realized he was getting nowhere. Michael was struck speechless by the bruises covering his friend’s sides and back. He could see blood in his hair. 

“Ryan?” Michael almost winced at the rough sound of his voice, squeaking out of his throat. Ryan turned suddenly, surprised at the sound and Michael could see the bruises covering his face as well. 

“Michael?” Ryan’s voice was still strong, if a little tired. He stared at his coworker. Michael was covered in blood, his back cut with some kind of sick tally and his jeans ruined with the dark substance. “Oh my god, are you okay?” 

“I should be asking you that,” Michael answered, his voice surprisingly weak to his ears. He cleared his throat, hoping that would help. “You look awful!” The joke fell slightly flat but Ryan still chuckled. 

There was the sound of footsteps in the hallway and Michael flinched as a figure came through the door, somehow expecting to see one of the rogues. The figure that entered, however, was a young man with a kind face except for a large scar that ran from his forehead down to the corner of his mouth, pulling the corner of his left eye askew slightly. Michael and Ryan both turned to look at him as he stopped, apparently sizing them up. 

The man stood there for a moment before shaking his head and crossing the room to the sinks. Michael and Ryan turned to watch him go. “Well,” the man said as he turned on the faucet and grabbed a bar of soap hidden at the bottom of the sink. “You two are up there on the worst I’ve seen so far, but don’t worry. I’ll have you right as rain soon enough. My name is Junior. I am chief medic here. I have hospital level training and worked as a medic in the army for several tours. Blue finally figured out that you guys don’t know a thing about what he’s looking for. Decided to ransom you back to your company instead. So you all have to look right ‘n pretty for the pictures.” 

Junior rattled the words off calmly as he scrubbed heartily at his hands with the soap, washing them thoroughly before drying them with a paper towel from a small stack sitting on the sink’s edge. The words seeped into Michael’s brain, taking an unusually long time to process. Ransom. They might get out of this. A spark of hope trickled into his consciousness. 

Junior went to Ryan first, walking calmly around him. Ryan watched him warily, jumping slightly as Junior ran his hands down his sides in a methodological way. “No broken ribs,” Junior stated seemingly to the air. “But they may be cracked. Can’t do anything for that.” 

There was a movement in the doorway and the old woman who had brought Michael to the room hobbled in with a bucket clasped in one hand and a pile of rags in the other. “Ah, Annie!” Junior exclaimed. “Fill the bucket with water and soak a rag. You can start on the other one.” With one motion Junior grabbed Ryan’s pants and started to pull them down. Ryan struggled, letting out a strangled shout. Junior stopped looking up with an almost exasperated expression. “Calm down! I need to make sure you’re fine and them we have a change of clothes to put on you.” Michael turned away as Junior stripped Ryan completely naked, jumping a little as Annie turned on the tap and water thundered into her bucket. 

“You should be alright, long as you don’t have a concussion. I’ll clean up the cuts about your head, put some arnica on the worst of the bruises and then you’ll be good to go!” Junior seemed to be talking to himself, the words muttered at Ryan. 

Annie struggled across the room with the bucket full of water, letting it clang down between where Michael and Ryan stood shackled to the walls. Michael turned to see Junior grabbing a wet rag and turning Ryan’s head so he could clean one of the cuts in his hairline, but turned back to the wall as Annie came up, looking him over appraisingly. 

With a small nod, she darted her hands forward and grabbed the waistband of his jeans, starting to pull them downward. Suddenly all Michael could see was Nook’s hands dragging his pants down and he felt an overwhelming wave of fear. “No! Don’t!” he managed to get out and he felt Annie pause. Reality swam back into his eyes and he realized his had pressed himself into the wall. Annie’s wrinkled face peered quizzically up at him. 

“That’s the one the rogues got?” Junior called across the room, rhetorically asking the woman. “He’s probably had more than his fair share of getting his pants dropped against his will. Do it anyway. His time with the rogues is even more reason to clean him up.” Annie nodded and Michael grit his teeth as she pulled his pants down, yanking as they stuck with blood. He was left naked, stepping out of his pants and feeling scared and vulnerable as Annie tossed them aside. 

Annie clucked her tongue with pity. She disappeared behind him and Michael pivoted to see her grab a rag. Across the room, Junior was squeezing some kind of ointment onto his hands and layering it onto Ryan’s skin. The next second the sharp but fresh scent hit Michael’s nose. Annie was once again next to him, starting with the cut on his forehead and wiping away the dried blood on his face. The cut stung a bit but didn’t match the dull ache in Michael’s shoulder. 

Annie was thankfully quiet as she moved onto the light cuts on his stomach that Michael had all but forgotten about, wiping away dirt, blood and sweat as she went. Michael could hear Junior bustling around behind him but held very still for Annie, trying to control the anxiety that threatened to make him start sobbing. Even her gentle hands reminded him of the rogue’s rough treatment, every touch reminding him of his powerlessness at the hands of others. He was reminded that he was at the mercy of these people and that they could do whatever they wanted with him because he was restrained. 

Annie moved onto his back, gently wiping the blood off his skin before carefully cleaning around the cuts. Behind him, Junior was helping Ryan into a pair of black sweatpants, hanging a gray shirt over Ryan’s shoulder as an afterthought before joining Annie at Michael’s side. Michael’s muscles were taught with stress as the other man started gently coursing his hands down his sides to check his ribs, then up his arms. 

The hands stopped at his right arm, the arm that Gent was fond of twisting behind his back, over a purple bruise. “His arm looks like its fractured, maybe even broken. Wish I could do something for it. I’ll make sure you get some pain meds, dude.” Michael nodded tersely, unsure if Junior expected a reaction. 

Junior’s hands disappeared from his arm and suddenly a spark of pain lit up in his shoulder where the cuts were. Michael gasped loudly, letting out a strangled shout as spots swam in front of his eyes. “Sorry, dude. I need to clean the cuts.” Junior patted his side in a conciliatory manor before moving back to the slices in Michael’s back. Michael bit his lip, letting out a groan as Junior continued in his work. He jumped as Annie’s cloth started cleaning the blood from his inner thigh. 

“Is he going to be okay?” Ryan’s question came quietly across the space, directed at their temporary caretakers. They ignored him completely, continuing their work but Michael made the effort to peer over his shoulder, meeting Ryan’s worried eyes and giving him what hopefully counted as a reassuring smile through the pain. 

Annie and Junior finished cleaning him up, getting uncomfortably personal with his privates, cleaning his asshole and thighs of the blood and cum caked there. Michael shivered in the cold room but the feeling of finally being free from the itchy dried blood that had covered his skin was amazing. Ryan had been carefully watching their progress, turning away when he realized how uncomfortable Michael was, but carefully calling across to him when he could. Annie had just taken the bucket and the cloths out of the room, leaving Junior to fetch the new clothes for Michael from the counter by the sinks when a loud set of footsteps sounded right outside the door. 

Michael’s blood ran cold as Nook appeared in the doorway, coming into the space with a vengeance. Junior whipped around as he heard the rogue enter the room, letting the clothes rest on the counter behind him. Michael pressed into the wall, trying to make himself less noticeable but it was evident that Nook already knew he was there. 

“Junior! Why is it that I find my boy here with you?” Nook’s tone was almost friendly but it held an icy undercurrent that gave away how angry he really was. Junior almost cringed but Michael saw him pull himself together. 

“Blue’s orders, Nook. We need to ransom them all, including yours. That means Blue wants him healthy looking and clean.” 

Nook stalked further into the room, straying until he was standing next to Michael. “Well, someone could have let me know. See, I came back from breakfast with the biggest hard-on imaginable. All I could think of was this boy’s pretty little ass.” Nook slapped a hand against Michael’s butt and Michael cringed further into the wall. He heard Ryan shift against the far wall and felt a flash of embarrassment. Not in front of Ryan, please not in front of his friend. Nook continued with his tale. “I walk into my lovely room and all I see is an empty mattress. I go to the others to see where my pretty little bird could be and they tell me that you had your old crone come take him away.” 

“Like I said, Blue’s orders.” Junior seemed to be mustering his strength. “And you can’t have him back yet. Blue said we need his picture first.” Michael’s heart sunk. Somehow he had thought being here with Junior meant that he was free from the rogues reach. Apparently it was just a brief respite before he went back to that hellhole. 

Nook was suddenly whining, leaning on Michael’s shoulder dramatically. “Oh, come on. Please, Juni-boy! I just need him for a quickie! I’ll be out of your hair soon, I promise. Just let me get it out of my system!” 

Michael distantly hoped that Junior would stand up to Nook and throw him out but that hope was cut short when Junior rolled his eyes and answered. “Fine, have it your way. But you only get five minutes. After that he is ours until Blue finishes with him.” 

Nook almost bounced up and down like a little kid, his hands clutching at Michael’s side. Michael wished he could sink into the wall and disappear, taking the entire world with him. He wished he could fade into nothing as Junior walked out the door, leaving him alone with Ryan and Nook for company. 

Nook’s demeanor changed once Junior was out of the room, his hands stroking Michael’s skin possessively, whispering loudly into his ear. “Hey baby, didn’t think you could run away that easily, did you?” Nook’s hands crept lower down Michael’s abdomen. 

“Stop!” Michael heard himself choke out, surprising even himself. Nook paused. 

“Leave him alone!” Ryan yelled from across the room and Michael could hear his friend straining against the cuffs, but he was frozen with fear and couldn’t look back.

“Oh, you have a friend!” Nook commented, looking back at Ryan as if he were a child before leaning into Michael’s ear again. “Does he like to watch?” 

“Stop,” Michael managed again, his voice choking out before he couldn’t manage any more. He knew what was coming and he desperately didn’t want it. This time Nook’s hands kept going, stroking Michael’s dick almost lovingly before pressing his body against Michael’s back and hugging his arms around him. Michael could feel Nook’s erection against his tender backside and he felt the familiar blankness coming as his mind started spacing out to escape the coming experience. He struggled uselessly against Nook’s grip as the man grabbed his butt with his long fingers. 

Nook clicked his tongue, chastising Michael’s weak attempts to get away. Michael could faintly hear Ryan rattling his cuffs against the metal hoop, trying to pull free. There was a sudden hand at the nape of his neck and Michael let out a shout of surprise as Nook shoved his head forward into the wall. Michael saw stars for a couple seconds, his feet losing purchase with the ground, leaving him swinging from his hands, stunned. Nook was unbuttoning his pants, dropping them and letting his length slap into Michael’s ass. 

The stars cleared just in time for Michael to scream hoarsely as Nook thrust into him. He was pressed into the wall, his arms stretched above him at an awkward angle, his legs spread so he couldn’t find purchase on the ground. 

Ryan yelled from across the room. “Stop it! Get away from him! Leave him alone! You monster!” 

The shouts made Nook laugh, the vibrations sending shocks into Michael who groaned as Nook thrust in again, setting a fast and hard rhythm. One hand locked around Michael’s middle, keeping him close to Nook so he had a good angle. The other locked around his neck and collarbone, pressing him into the wall and choking him slightly. 

Michael let his mind fully take over, shoving the pain and noise into drawers and slamming them shut. He drifted, hardly away of Ryan’s angry sobs from across the room and Nook’s lusty grunts filling the small room along with the slapping sound of skin on skin. Nook finally came, shouting incoherently and slumping into Michael’s back before pulling out. He gave Michael’s ass a small pat before pulling his pants back up. Michael hung from his wrists; he didn’t have the energy to get his feet under him. His head hung down onto his chest and he couldn’t even hear Ryan across the room. Was his friend still there? Maybe it was better if he wasn’t. 

Michael heard the telltale click of a switchblade and squeezed his eyes shut, wishing he could escape the pain. “Wouldn’t want to lose track, now would we?” Nook whispered loudly, still breathing heavily from the rape. Michael felt the blade on his skin and only gave a small groan as Nook drew the eighth tally mark on his back, slicing into his shoulder next to the other cuts. Michael could feel the blood drip down his back and heard Nook stalk out of the room, his footsteps lively. 

Michael started shaking, his mind for some reason no longer letting him escape from the moment. He longed for the fogginess again that came with drifting away from reality but he couldn’t get there. A tear fell from the end of his nose and hit the floor. Michael watched the small wet spot. He heard a sound behind him and his heart skipped nervously before he remembered Ryan. “Michael?” Ryan’s voice was almost hoarse from yelling at Nook, nervously crossing the space between them. 

Michael contemplated answering but couldn’t quite muster the energy. He heard Ryan shift again, heard him draw breath for another comment, but just then Junior bustled into the room, sighing loudly. “Rogues!” Junior grumbled, strutting over to the sinks to grab a handful of paper towels before walking over and pressing them into the new cut in Michael’s back. Junior continued grumbling as he stopped the bleeding and forced the sweatpants up Michael’s legs. Michael heard Junior calling in a group of the black-clad men who unlocked Ryan’s handcuffs, forcing the shirt over his head before fastening the handcuffs in front of him again. Michael was dimly aware of them sitting Ryan down in a corner of the room. 

There was a clicking sound above him and one of the cuffs opened, dumping him down to the floor. He barely managed to stop his face from slamming into the wall and then a gray shirt was being forced onto him. Briefly he was aware of how nice and warm a clean shirt was. His hands were handcuffed in front of him again and the men basically carried him across the space before tossing him down next to Ryan. 

Michael felt the last of the fogginess leave his head, the pain battering his senses. He couldn’t bear to look at his friend, keeping his eyes focused on the ground. He was shaking, the unexpected attack leaving him trying to catch his breath. A newspaper was thrust into Ryan’s hands and there was a sudden flash. A camera was lowered as the men checked that the picture was good enough. The paper was snatched away and the group of men milled around, waiting for their next orders. 

Ryan leaned into Michael, feeling the younger man shaking. His heart was shaken; he couldn’t find a single thing to say, but hoped that he could convey some kind of comfort. 

Michael was suddenly glad that Ryan was there. He of course wished that Ryan hadn’t seen the rape but was grateful that, at least for this moment, he wasn’t alone to face these monsters. A thought surfaced in his mind; he was aware that the rogues would take him back into hell the second Blue’s men finished their jobs. Michael leaned back into Ryan, eyes still focused on the floor, clearing his throat and wishing he had a drink of water. His voice almost didn’t work at first, coming out strangled and unclear. “Don’t—don’t tell the others.” He didn’t want his other friends to know about the rape. He already felt the shame deep in his skin. 

Ryan nodded gently at his side. There was some kind of unheard command among the men and suddenly Ryan was grabbed and dragged to his feet. He tried to turn to see Michael once more but he was out the door too quickly. The men pulled and pushed him, constantly keeping him off balance. They went through a door and were suddenly in the large room with the cages to one side. 

Ryan saw Geoff, Jeremy and Jack occupying three of the cages and was directed towards the fourth. He was shoved in after the cuffs were removed from his hands and he rubbed his wrists as the door was locked and the groups disappeared down a hallway. He ran a hand down his face, remembering his promise to Michael. He couldn’t look at the others, walking and sliding down the back wall of the cage until he was sitting on the ground. The ointment Junior had put on his bruises stuck his shirt to him uncomfortably but was numbing some of the pain.

“Ryan?” he heard Geoff call. 

“You okay, man?” Jack asked and Ryan forced himself to look up at the other Achievement Hunter. Ryan sighed, shaking his head.

“Nothing about this is okay!” There was a silence as the other men accepted that comment. Ryan could feel the worry cast by the other guys; they were probably wondering if he really was all right or not. He sighed, not wanting to worry them unnecessarily. “I’m fine,” he said. The words sounded like lies in his ears and he could still see the image of that nasty man attacking Michael, raping him—

Ryan rubbed his eyes, trying to get the image away but the sounds of Michael’s scream kept sounding in his ears. 

“You don’t look fine,” Jack said quietly, and Ryan nodded. There was a pause.

“I saw Michael,” Ryan explained, hoping that he wouldn’t have to break his promise. 

“Michael!?” Geoff yelled in unison with Jeremy. “Is he okay? Is he hurt?” Geoff sounded extremely worried and Ryan sighed again, trying to figure out how to answer.

“He’s—alive,” Ryan managed.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Geoff called and Ryan could tell they were all trying to read his expression. 

Ryan dodged the question. “We need to get out of here. Soon.” He buried his face in his hands, hoping that the others would understand that he couldn’t take any more questions. He hoped they would get out soon. He hoped that everything and everyone would be all right. 

He hoped desperately that Michael survived that long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated!


	8. Unexpected Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the ransom call completed, now it's just a waiting game. The kidnapped AH people find a new friend and Michael doubts he is included on the ransom.

Gavin was sitting with Meg in the police department when the call came. It had been two days since Michael was taken and the rest of the Achievement Hunters disappeared. Lindsey was asleep, and Gavin was almost jealous that she could fall asleep at a time like this. Gavin had dozed a couple of times but this was the third day of little-to-no sleep for him. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that made it hard for him to realize his phone was buzzing in his pocket. It was an anonymous number. Without really thinking about it, Gavin answered the phone. 

A robotic, prerecorded message started playing in his ear and he froze as he listened to the message. 

" This is a ransom call for a Michael Jones, Jeremy Dooley, Geoffrey Ramsey, Ryan Haywood and Jack Pattillo. Demands and proof of life will be sent by email to the work email address of Gavin Free. Failure to meet the demands in the expected time will result in severe consequences for the aforementioned individuals. "

There was a pause and then the message started to repeat a second time before Gavin could move his feet. He ran into the next room, almost tripping over the very detective he was looking for. 

“Whoa!” Segski managed before Gavin was thrusting his phone at him.

“They called me! It’s a ransom call! What do I do? What do we do, detective Segski?” Segski barely managed to catch the phone and was able to hear the tail end of the message before it clicked into silence. 

“Can you tell me what they said?” Segski’s voice was intense, obviously excited at the new lead open in the case. 

“They said they would send their demands to my email!” Gavin was freaking out, unsure what he should do. Segski grabbed his shoulder gently, leading him to his own desk computer. 

“Pull up your email.” Segski turned, calling over his shoulder at the people around the room. “Get Rhody down here now!” He turned back to Gavin. “She’s our best analyst. If she can’t figure out where they’re keeping your friends, no one can.” 

Gavin did indeed have a new email in his inbox from an anonymous no-reply account. There was no subject, simply a link attached. Gavin paused, mouse hovering over the blue letters. 

“What’s going on, Gavin?” Meg asked, seeing the sudden activity. Gavin clicked the link decisively. 

“I got a ransom call, Turney!” The cursor spun, thinking and then a new window popped up, the server hidden. The page was dark but soon code filled the page and another window flashed up. This one was white text on a black background, calling for $100,000 for each Achievement Hunter. Gavin’s stomach did a flip. “Blimey, that’s a lot of money. Where the fuck are we going to get five hundred thousand dollars?” Gavin sat back, stupefied and Meg put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “And we need to get it to them by five pm? Drop off to be announced…?”

Segski reached over Gavin’s other shoulder and scrolled down the page. There were two pictures posted, both incredibly dim but Gavin could still make out his friends’ faces. Meg gasped quietly. Jack, Geoff and Jeremy stared at the camera for the first picture and Gavin had never seen them look so wary before in their lives. The photo was dim but Gavin could still make out the black eye on Jeremy, wincing in sympathy. “Bullocks,” Gavin whispered, not sure what else to say. Segski scrolled down to show the next picture, revealing Ryan and Michael. Michael wasn’t looking at the camera but the bruises on Ryan’s face were all too apparent. 

A paper with the date was prominent in each of the pictures, a timestamp on the photos marking them as being taken in the past hour. Detective Segski nudged Gavin reassuringly. “Let Rhody do some digging. She’ll find a way back to these motherfuckers and then we will get your friends back.” He sounded confident and Gavin desperately wanted to believe him. 

“I need to call Burnie,” Gavin said, remembering the owner of the company. 

“I’ll tell Lindsey!” Meg announced, heading back to the waiting room. Gavin stood but Segski grabbed his arm gently, pulling his attention to him. 

“Call your guy, okay? But then go get some sleep. You won’t be any help to your friends or this investigation if you’re dead on your feet, okay?” Gavin nodded, surprised by Segksi’s surprisingly caring tone. 

“Oh,” Segski added as an afterthought. “And go eat something.” 

*************************************************************************

Geoff woke with a start, having finally managed a fitful sleep on the pile of rags that counted as a bed in the cells. He glanced around, trying to figure out what had woken him. The other Achievement Hunters, minus Michael who was still missing, were sleeping in their own cells. It took Geoff a second to see the old lady standing at the door of his cell. Her gray clothing almost blended into the background and she was almost supernaturally quiet. Maybe he was seeing a ghost?

It was the smell that hit him next. An unbelievably mouth-watering scent moving through the air and reminding him he hadn’t eaten in a couple days. The woman held a plastic bag in her hand and the smell seemed to be emanating from this. She saw him staring at the bag and a light smile brushed her face. She reached into the plastic, finally making some quiet rustling noises, and pulled out a paper-wrapped object, holding it out through the bars to Geoff. 

Geoff scrambled forward and took the object eagerly, the warmth sending delighted shivers down his spine. He tore off the paper to reveal some grocery store microwave burrito oozing grease. It was all he could do to stop himself from inhaling it all in one bite. The woman smiled and hobbled sideways to stand in front of Jeremy’s cell. Her yellow-white hair seemed to glow in the dim light of the room. 

The other men were stirring slightly and the thought crossed Geoff’s mind that maybe he should have woken them and shared the food. He didn’t know if the woman had more of these greasy pieces of heaven. He shouldn’t have feared as she reached into her bag and pulled another paper-wrapped object that steamed slightly in the cold air. 

Soon the other AH members had food and the space was full of quiet munching and sighs of delight at the warmth and the food filling their stomach’s after the days of nothing. The woman hovered quietly, gesturing that she would take the paper back. She came last to Geoff’s cell who hesitated. He felt guilty that they all had food when he had no idea where Michael was, if he was okay or if he wasn’t. 

Geoff looked up at the old woman who repeated her gesture to take the greasy paper he held in his hand. “Is Michael okay?” he whispered. The woman’s forehead creased and she looked confused. “Our friend that the rogues took, is he okay? Do you know?” The confusion on her face cleared and she nodded. “He’s okay?” Geoff clarified and she kept nodding, a warm smile twitching at the side of her mouth. “Has he eaten?” Geoff continued. The woman paused then a full smile broke out on her face and she reached into her bag again, bringing out an unwrapped burrito which she jiggled a little before replacing. “You’re going to him next then?” Geoff sighed in relief as she nodded once more. “Can you take him a message?” 

The woman paused, tilting her head to the side as she thought. Then she reached into a pocket at her side and pulled out a short stub of a pencil, holding it out to Geoff as if giving away a prized possession. Geoff took it carefully, and she pointed at the greasy paper he still held in his hand. “Ah!” he put the puzzle together, turning the paper over to the less-greasy side. 

“Can you talk?” Jeremy asked quietly, looking curiously at the woman. 

“Jeremy!” Jack scolded quietly and Jeremy shrugged at him. The woman smiled, having taken no offence before placing her hand on her throat and shaking her head. 

“Oh, okay.” Jeremy responded. The woman turned away from him, glancing over her shoulder at the dark hallways stretching into shadow. Geoff had the momentary impression that maybe the others didn’t know she was giving them food. She turned back and tapped her wrist as if reminding him to hurry. Geoff finished the note, folding it carefully before handing it through the bars along with the pencil stub. She stuffed both back into her pocket and gave them a nod before turning and walking away. She made no sound, as if she were some kind of ghost. Soon she was out of sight.

“Her name is Annie. She was there when they were cleaning me up for the picture.” 

Ryan’s voice seemed oddly quiet but then he changed the subject. “What did you write?” Ryan asked. Geoff shrugged.

“I wanted him to know that we were okay and that we would be getting out soon.” Silence hovered in the air. 

They weren’t necessarily okay. None of them, maybe except for Geoff, had gotten away unscathed. 

But maybe they would be getting out soon. 

**************************************************************************

Michael lay once more on the now-familiar filthy mattress in the small room, drifting through his thoughts. He was strangely separate from his body, as if watching himself lie on the bloody mattress from some other place. He had been thrown back in here after the picture was taken as if the rogues couldn’t wait another second. His mind had taken over, strangely practiced at dissociating now and he now had a total of twelve slices in his back. His body was stiff and sore, his wrists rubbed raw from the handcuffs digging into his flesh in the other room. Once again one of his wrists was restrained but this was all freakishly familiar. Michael had only been here for maybe two days but still he couldn’t quite remember a time outside of the dark and dank cement walls filled with pain and fear. 

He shifted slightly as his back spiked with pain again and the collar rubbed uncomfortably against his throat. His mind snapped back into his body and he reached up a hand to tug once more at the ring of plastic circling his neck. It was tight, almost too tight to fit a finger under it and two painful barbs dug into the side of his neck. A small but strong lock hung from the back, keeping the circle of hard plastic in place. 

Nook’s voice rang once more in his ears. “This is a handy little toy we use to keep you from talking. Say something!” Michael had tried to answer given the intense order from Nook but as soon as a syllable escaped his mouth, an intense shock dove through his body from the barbs in the collar. The shock was painfully similar to getting tased only shorter and Michael had learned quickly that any sound out of his mouth resulted in the harsh shock. The plastic chaffed at his skin, rubbing awkwardly. Michael gave up trying to make it more comfortable, letting his mind wander again.

The shift of plastic seemed to separate his body even more from his mind. He expected to distantly feel the rogues grabbing him once more but instead was met with gentle fingers brushing back his hair and the smell of food. His mind snapped back once more into his body and he looked up at the old woman, Annie. 

She rifled through a plastic bag hung on her arm and offered a paper-wrapped bundle to him. It was delectably warm and Michael scooted so he could use his bound hand to eat as well, tearing the burrito apart. When he finished he licked the wrapper clean, stopping only when he remembered Annie still at his side. Self-consciously he folded up the paper and handed it back to her waiting hand. She stuffed it back into the back and then pulled a similar sheet out of her pocket.

Michael took the piece of paper, staring down at the faint writing on it before being able to make it out in the dim light. 

Michael—  
We are all okay. Ransom is soon so look forward to getting out of here. Hang in there.  
—Geoff

Michael blinked at the note, surprised by the tears pricking at his eyes. It wasn’t long; simple really, but reminded him of his boss and his coworkers. If Geoff was strong enough to write a secret note then everything would be okay. He looked up at Annie with a smile. “How are they?” Within a second his collar jolted him out of his happy reverie, shocking him several times in a row. Michael felt Annie’s cool fingers resting gently on his shoulder and he looked up at her, pained tears leaking down his face. 

She held a finger up to her lips to remind him to be quiet before pulling a pencil stub out of her pocket and gesturing that he should write a note back. Michael took the pencil gratefully, flattening the paper so he could write under his boss’s note. He paused as he thought about what to write. There was a rustling sound from across the room and Michael froze, thinking it was the rogues returning but Annie just looked across the room calmly. Michael followed her gaze to a vent that he had noticed before. It was the only thing other than the light and the mattress in the room. It was a big vent covering about two square feet of the wall with it’s grating. 

Michael watched with apprehension as a screw popped out of the top of the grate and then the entire mesh of metal was lifted out, away from the wall. A small figure appeared, dirty enough to almost blend into the concrete but Michael was able to recognize that it was a small girl, maybe six or seven years old. The girl set the grate down surprisingly quietly, landing on the ground as if she weighed nothing. A gray backpack was strapped to her back. Annie waved as if she had been expecting the girl.

The girl ran over and hugged Annie and Michael felt strangely out of place. With a well-practiced movement, the girl slung the bag off her back, pulling a bottle of water from inside and handing it to Michael. He gratefully opened it and downed its contents, finally giving some remedy to his damaged throat. He choked on the water, coughing suddenly. The cough apparently sent vibrations through the collar and he flinched as the shocks shook through him again. Annie’s gentle hand rested on his shoulder. The girl took the empty water bottle from his hand, her wide brown eyes making him wonder how she ended up down in this hellhole. 

Annie gestured again at the paper and pencil and he scribbled out a quick note to the others, not quite sure what to say. Geoff seemed to think that they would all get out of this nasty place alive but that hope had been snuffed out for Michael the minute he was dumped back in with the rogues. If they were really ransoming them, then they would want them all to be kept alive and well. 

But the torture continued. 

In his note he made sure not to mention the ransom. 

G—  
I’m hanging in there. Glad to hear you are all okay. Stay safe.  
—M

Michael nodded at Annie who took back the pencil stub but handed the scrap of torn paper to the girl who tucked it carefully into a side pocket of her bag. With a wave she scampered back to the vent and in a second had replaced the grate with barely a sound. 

Michael’s mind was still focused on his friends. Maybe they would get out of this place. Maybe the ransom would go through and his coworkers would be able to go back to their lives. 

An image of Lindsey popped up and a deep grief dove through his chest. He wasn’t going to see her ever again. And Gavin, he wasn’t going to see the Brit again. And his mother. And all the friends he had in Rooster Teeth in general. He was never going to see them again. He was going to die in this tiny little shit-hole on a bloody mattress at the hands of three psychopaths. He would never reach his thirtieth birthday. He was going to die here, all alone. 

His body ached; every movement was already painful. He almost wished he were already dead so he didn’t have to put up with any more pain or torture at the hands of the rogues. But he missed all the people he would never see again with his entire soul.

All this hit Michael at once and tears came unbidden, seeming to burst from his eyes. His shoulders shook and he couldn’t stop the quiet sob from breaking from his throat. His collar shocked him but that just made him cry harder, the hopelessness of everything crushing him down. The sobs made his body hurt but he couldn’t seem to stop. 

He felt a sudden hand on his shoulder and he remembered Annie who was still crouching in from of him. In a second her arms were around him and he was somehow halfway in her lap, a calm hand smoothing his hair. She was gentle, her arms staying clear of the cuts on his back and she held him loosely so he could pull away if he wanted to. The gentle contact was nice after the days of rough torture. Her gentle hands seemed like feathers. 

Slowly his sobs stopped and he drifted off to an uneasy sleep. He barely noticed Annie gently laying him down on the mattress and stealing out of the room like a benevolent ghost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos and a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.


	9. Written Messages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes are being passed and emails are being sent but the bigger picture is slowly becoming visible...and it doesn't look good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter to set up the next few exciting ones. I finished a whole chunk of the story minus the ending so I will be updating daily until I run out of material.

Geoff was sitting in a quiet after-meal stupor, the kind that weighs heavily on your stomach and makes your eyes droop, when he was distracted by a small sound. The sound was coming from a grate on the other side of the room. The grate was large and industrial, covering about two square feet of wall but the screws holding it to the wall were slowly unscrewing and dropping one by one to the floor. 

Geoff scrambled to his feet, alerting Jeremy that something was going on. The other guys soon caught on, staring intently as the last screw fell to the ground and the grate was pushed away from the wall and lowered down until it hit the floor with barely a sound. A small arm came into the light followed by the rest of a small girl.

Geoff stared at the girl. She was younger than his daughter, Millie, but only by a year or two. Her clothes and skin were dirty but her eyes were bright as she flashed a smile right at him. Her eyes checked the room carefully before jumping to the floor and running over to the line of cages. She swung a small greyish backpack to the ground, dutifully swiping her hair out of her face as she rummaged in the pack. 

Out of the pack she pulled a water bottle, handing it through the bars to Geoff with a toothy smile before grabbing her back and heading down the row. When all the guys had water she returned to Geoff’s cage, rummaging in a side pocket of her pack and producing a familiar-looking piece of paper. He took it from her, holding it at an angle so he could read the faint writing. There was a smudge of blood at the bottom but the writing was clear. Geoff’s heart lifted a little. Michael was okay. Michael was hanging in there. Wordlessly he handed the paper over to Jeremy before finishing his water. The young girl held her hand out for the empty bottle and he handed it back. 

“What’s your name?” Geoff whispered quietly, infringing upon the careful silence. The girl’s smile disappeared and she shook her head, her eyes wide and suddenly fearful. “Sorry, nevermind,” Geoff said quickly as the girl scrambled to get the bottles of water from the other men. Jack hadn’t even opened his and the girl looked at him questioningly. 

“I’ve had enough water for the time being,” Jack said quietly. The girl nodded motioning that he should hide the bottle under the pile of rags, watching as Jack did before taking Ryan’s empty bottle and stuffing it in her bag. She had just slung the bag back onto her back when the door across the room opened and Red stormed in.

The girl froze and Red stopped, a look of surprise and fury crossing his face. He started forward. “Come here you little cunt! That bitch Annie can only protect you for so long! I’ve been telling Blue for years we should just put a bullet in your brain!” Geoff watched breathlessly as the girl danced out of Red’s reach, disappearing like a ghost into the vent. Red slammed his fists into the wall, growling. 

Red whipped around, his face still furious. Geoff hoped that whoever had the note had it well hidden. Even through all the torture he had never seen Red actually angry before. “I fucking hate kids,” Red snarled. The men in the cages wisely said nothing. He turned, looking around as if he had forgotten why he had even come into the room before storming out. 

There was a quiet moment as the captured Achievement Hunters waited breathlessly for Red to come storming back in. A minute passed and then Ryan unfolded the note he had stuffed down his shirt. “Uh, guys?” Ryan said. “There’s another note on here.” 

“Yeah, Michael wrote it!” Jeremy said rather impatiently. 

“No,” Ryan said. “I can see the one Michael wrote…I think the girl wrote this one.” He carefully held the note in his hand, staring down at the words that were on the other side of the paper. The letters were drawn very precisely in the way only a child could draw them. 

“Well, what does it say?” Geoff asked impatiently. Jeremy and Jack also stared over at Ryan who shifted uncomfortably. His discomfort, however, didn’t come from the other men. He read the note out loud, slowly.

“ ‘They are going to kill you anyway. Get out now’ ”

**************************************************************************

The rest of the ransom demands came to Gavin in a similar email with another link. Rhody had been typing for hours, her hands drifting across the keys like she was so used to typing she could do it in her sleep. A strange collection of windows crossed the screen. Rhody called Segski over when the new email came in, pulling up the window with the hidden server. 

“Hey, boss. We got the rest of the demands.” Gavin snapped out of his doze in the chair next to her, leaning over to read the screen as Segski came over. The detective cast him a disapproving look but seemed to know that Gavin wouldn’t leave until his friends were found. 

“ $500,000 dollars to be delivered at Willow Park at 7pm. Come alone. No cops or there will be consequences. “

Beneath the updated ransom demand were the ransom pictures of the other Achievement Hunters. Gavin’s stomach still tightened at the sight of his friends held captive. 

“Rhody, what’s the update?” Segski asked calmly. Rhody shrugged, having already resumed her typing. 

“They aren’t amateurs, boss. This will take me awhile to crack, if I am even able to get to their server. They have firewalls surrounding their proxy servers. It’s like trying to get into a fortress. I might be good but whoever made their system is better than me.” 

“Wut’s the plan, boss?” Gavin asked Segski, who paused and looked at him questioningly. “I’m supposed to bring them the cash, yeah? But I don’t want to look like a pleb doing it, right?” His attempt at a weak joke fell completely flat and Segski just shook his head at him. 

“You’re not going out alone. We know they want you to deliver the money so we will place some plain-clothes officers in the vicinity.” He turned to go, obviously on some sort of mission but Gavin was still really confused. 

“Oi! Hang up a minute! They said no cops or bad stuff was going to happen. And what about the money? Burnie won’t be able to get that much!”

Segski turned around, taking a deep breath and obviously trying to explain it as patiently as possible. “The cops undercover are good at staying undetected. So don’t worry about that. As for the money, it’s looking more and more like these are some of the bigger players for some illegal activities that have been going on not only in the area but in other states as well. The FBI is on their way out here. They have funds for this kind of kidnapping along with the undetectable trackers to see where the money goes after you hand it over. I have to go debrief my team, please excuse me.” 

Segski walked away and Gavin collected himself, looking over at the infuriatingly slow clock on the wall. It was 4pm, almost exactly three days since he had seen Michael get dragged off the street. It felt like an eternity had passed since then. And now he was collecting his courage to go give the bad guys more money than Gavin was likely ever to see again. 

He hoped his friends could hang on and that they would all come out in one piece.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.


	10. Cause and Effect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ransom drop is going through until things go horribly wrong, and the consequences of this are extreme.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: gore

The FBI guy was really intimidating. His name was Wilson and Gavin could tell that Segski was in awe of the guy. To Wilson’s credit, he seemed to get along just find with the cops at the station, not stepping on too many toes as he got the information about what was going on. 

It took this Wilson guy under two minutes to locate Gavin hovering quietly at the edge of the sea of cops and feds running about. “Mr. Free?” Gavin jerked at the sound of his name being called. “You’re going to be doing the drop, if I understand correctly.” It wasn’t said like a question but Gavin nodded anyway, trying to pay attention to what Wilson was saying as he described the set-up and how to find and approach the ransomer. 

The car ride over to the park in question seemed to take forever and Gavin spent most of it twisting the numbers on the lockable suitcase randomly. The spouses of all the kidnapped were back at the police station waiting to hear what was going to happen along with Millie and Ryan’s girls. Lindsey had send Matt Bragg and Trevor back to the office to edit some videos in an attempt to get them out of the way. Gavin sincerely doubted they would get any work done.

Burnie had dropped in yet again just before Gavin took off with the money, his kind face unusually harried and solemn. He had wished Gavin good luck and told him to “Get them back.” 

It was the car parking that jolted Gavin out of his thoughts. He gave a thumbs up to the plain-clothes cop who was driving and got out of the car, pulling the suitcase with him. The sun was setting and Gavin realized through the pounding of adrenaline in his veins that it was a lovely evening out. He swallowed nervously and walked along the pavement towards the little cluster of trees. He made sure to totally ignore the man running past him and the woman talking on her phone on the bench. They were both cops that were his back-up team should things go awry. 

It wasn’t hard to find the man he was supposed to give the money to. The man was wearing a fancy suit and sunglasses like he had popped off the screen of an action movie. He stood silently in the middle of the park, just a couple yards away from a playground where a couple kids were swinging, their bright voices seeming to exist in another world entirely. 

It seemed like it took hours for Gavin to walk across the space between them. He stopped a couple steps away, swinging the arm with the briefcase nervously. 

“Do you have the money?” the man asked in a surprisingly conversational tone. 

Gavin nodded. “It should all be here.” His voice sounded small in his ears, ringing out uneasily in the wide-open space around them. The man smirked a little and reached his hand out to grab the suitcase. 

And that is when everything went to shit. 

A lout siren cut through the air, red and blue flashing across the park as a cop car halted on an adjacent street. Gavin looked around, startled. The woman undercover cop looked shocked and Gavin had to agree. This wasn’t part of the plan. 

The man in the suit took a couple of steps back before bolting away, leaving Gavin standing there alone with the suitcase full of money. The two undercover cops sprinted past him after the man who had dodged traffic and disappeared across the street. 

Gavin slowly turned in a half circle, wondering what exactly his next move should be. The ransom had failed. Nervously he wondered if they would get another chance. 

Fucking shit.

********************************************************************

Geoff had to say that being a captive was pretty boring. At least it was when men dressed all in black and random women and children weren’t coming in to see them every two minutes. The rest of the men were fitfully napping, the quiet broken by the sound of Jack coughing every once in awhile. Geoff was worried about him. His breathing still wasn’t quite right. Whatever those fucking bastards had done to him had taken something out of Geoff’s big bearded friend. 

Truth be told he was worried about all of them. He knew Jeremy was hurting a lot underneath his false bravado. Ryan had coughed up some bloody mucus earlier. And Michael was still MIA. 

Worry twisted Geoff’s gut as he thought about their missing member. Ryan said he had seen him but had dodged about every question they had asked him about it. What had he seen? How was Michael actually doing? 

The note from the girl weighed heavily on his mind as well. The thought of a ransom was such a relief from their previous torture-centered experience. But maybe this ransom was a false hope. Maybe they should be looking for another way out of here. 

Geoff scanned the cages once more, looking at how the bars met the concrete, how the doors were constructed and how strong the locks were. He was fairly certain that with the supplies they had, unless they somehow got a key, they were not going to be able to do anything to escape. Maybe they could try something the next time they were moved…if they were moved. 

The door across the room broke his contemplation, bursting open. Red entered, followed by Blue and a whole swarm of black clothed goons. The other AH guys woke at the sounds of the large group moving across the space with a stampede of footsteps. Red was still the only one unmasked and Geoff’s stomach turned as he saw what could have been blood on Red’s hands. 

“What’s going on?” Geoff asked as the posse reached the door to his cell, a black-clad member using his ring of keys to unlock it. The goon took the lock off the cell door and was pushed roughly aside by Blue who stalked into the small space. Geoff, against his pride, backed up. 

“Your first ransom opportunity went…badly. We need to show them we mean business.” Blue’s eyes through the mask were cold, showing no sign of compassion as they glanced over his body before settling on his face. “Take his ear,” Blue said, seemingly to the men behind him. Red nodded and Blue stepped back, watching with his arms crossed as black clad men grabbed Geoff.

Geoff struggled against the many hands holding him but wasn’t strong enough to stop them from mashing him to the wall and holding him there. A hand was on his head, keeping him absolutely still. Geoff could hear the other AH men yelling at them to leave him alone but Red still waded through the throng as if this were nothing more than a minor chore. In his hand he held a large knife, almost the size of a hunting knife and Geoff was surprised he hadn’t seen it when the men entered. 

His heart pounded and he could feel his muscles tensing even though he had nowhere to go. “What the fuck are you—” Geoff managed before Red was closer than he had ever been and Geoff could see his grey eyes. Red placed a hand on his head and suddenly there was a sharp pain just over his ear and he screwed his eyes closed. “Ow!” he managed to say before the pain exploded and his brain collected enough information to tell him what was going on. 

The knife in Red’s hand was sawing back and forth. Blood was dripping down his face. The pain stabbed and rolled, horribly rising in waves. 

It took another moment to realize that he was out of breath because he had been screaming. He was still screaming. His shoulder was hot because the blood was running down from his head. There was ringing in his ears. Everything was muffled and his vision was going grey and the world pitched about a bit. There was sudden coolness against the side of his head. One of the black-clad men pressed a mess of gauze into his hand, forcing him to hold it to where the knife had cut. 

It was a full couple of seconds until he realized that the men were leaving his cell and locking him back in. Red was walking away, holding something in his hand but the stupid tears were blocking Geoff’s gaze so he couldn’t tell what it was. Everything was muffled. He could feel his pulse through the gauze that he was still somehow holding to the side of his head. His gaze was wonky and he stumbled a bit to the side, leaning against the bars connecting his cage to Jeremy’s. Suddenly he was on the floor, still leaning against the bars and he didn’t quite understand how he had gotten there.

Jeremy was there, just beyond the bars and he was saying something but for the life of him, Geoff couldn’t tell what. Then Jeremy was reaching through the bars, carefully pulling away the gauze to see the side of Geoff’s head. The air was cold mixing with the warmth of blood. Then Jeremy was pressing the gauze back over the wound and Geoff held it back on through reflex alone. 

Slowly sound was coming back but only to the side not with the wound. “—eoff, can you hear me? Please tell me you can hear me!” Jeremy was saying.

“How is he doing?” Jack was asking. 

“mmmokay,” Geoff manage, slurring his words slightly. “What happened?” 

“C-can’t you tell?” Jeremy stuttered, his relieved smile faltering somewhat.

“I can’t fucking see the side of my head, idiot!” Geoff returned. Jeremy’s expression turned somber and Geoff wondered why he was joking around when the newest member of their team looked so shocked. 

“They…they cut off your ear.” Jeremy looked stricken and Geoff felt about the same way, his stomach swimming. The absence of sound aside from some ringing where he held the gauze was easily explained that way. 

Suddenly Geoff found everything very amusing. He smiled even though it hurt the side of his head, chuckling a bit. Jeremy looked at him with concern so he tried to explain himself. “It’s…it’s just all so dramatic. I’m like fucking da vinci. You know? Ha ha ha!” He hiccupped through his laughter. 

“Geoff—” Jack said, his tone unreadable. It was Ryan’s face though, the understanding small smirk that brought Geoff back to reality. The giggles stopped and he was left with hiccups that shook his head. The dull and dangerous pain registered through his shock, like a slug attached to the side of his head. He had lost his ear. They had cut off his fucking ear. 

For the first time in a very long time Geoff didn’t have a single thing to say. He was speechless. Helplessly he stared at the others and they stared back. 

Fuck this place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.


	11. Room of Boxes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rogues have a new plan for Michael

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: blood, gore, mention of rape, explicit torture

Michael was used to the collar now and he was able to ignore the feeling of the plastic digging into his skin. If it wasn’t for the weight, he could almost pretend it wasn’t there. Michael was a practiced hand at dissociating now, able to sink into his mind and stay there easily. It was almost like falling asleep except he was still awake and the only difference was that he could cut off his senses and just float in the ether of thought. 

The dissociation helped exponentially when the rogues stopped by. Sometimes it was just one of them but sometimes it was all three of them. It seemed like they couldn’t really go more than a couple of hours before coming back to take their fill of him. Michael had long since blocked out the pain from his arm and his insides. The pain that bothered him the most was how tense his muscles were and the cramping in his shoulder from lying in the unnatural position for days on end. 

In a way, Michael just wanted to die. He wanted to close his eyes and never have to open them ever again. He never wanted to see this tiny room again with the light bulb hanging from the ceiling and the cement wall. He never wanted to feel the filthy mattress under him again, ruined with sweat and blood and dirt and who knew what else. He didn’t want to be here anymore. 

But another part of him was still fighting. He could still see Lindsay’s beautiful face and he could remember the feeling of being with friends through the bad days and the good. He could remember the great feeling of laughing until his stomach hurt and he could still remember what it felt like to walk freely, without being dragged around. He wanted that back. He wanted that back really badly. 

It was these good things that kept him grounded and able to return to his body. If he lost that, he might as well be a piece of meat lying on that filthy mattress in that room forever because a mind wandering alone can’t get the body to eat or sleep or breathe. The dissociation was good but he was very close to never returning to his body. 

Michael had lost track of the number of cuts on his back. There were a lot and that’s all he knew. Somewhere along the line the rogues had taken his shirt away but they had also taken away the sweatpants. He lay naked on the mattress, without even the slightest protection against the cold room, let alone the rogues. He wondered if Ryan had kept his promise and hadn’t told the others what was happening to him. He hoped he had. 

The sound of plastic being pushed aside followed by three pairs of footsteps brushed through his dissociation and he flinched as Nook grabbed him yet again. However, something about this seemed strangely different. Nook was grabbing his face and words slipped into Michael’s ears. 

“Look at me! Pay attention, hun! Look at me! There we go.” The words came louder and louder as Michael returned to his body. He could feel Nook’s rough hands on either side of his face and he could smell Clock hovering around his head. Gent had to be somewhere behind them. 

“Blue says he wants to ransom you!” Nook was talking to him as if he were talking to a child, but his hands were grasping roughly at Michael’s head. “But he can’t take you away from us. We are going to hide you away so he can’t find you, okay?” 

Nook actually looked slightly upset, an expression that Michael had only seen on his face when he found him with Junior. “We’re going to hide you!” Nook repeated. Michael stared widely up at him, wishing that he had clothes on as Nook pressed himself closer. “Before we do that,” Nook continued, “we need something from you so that we can remember you always. Of course I usually only take a lock of hair from the ones I like…but you are special.” 

Clock wheezed behind his field of vision and there was a small clatter as Gent dropped a black bag to the floor. Nook had one knee on Michael’s chest and let go of his face to reach for the bag. 

What the fuck? What was going on now? Nook pulled out some strange kind of contraption. It was small and looked like an overgrown pair of tweezers with some kind of plate between the prongs. Nook licked his lips at the sight of it, reaching back into the bag to pull out a small glass jar. Inside the jar some grayish specks of dirt rattled around. It took a second for Michael to realize that it wasn’t dirt. It was a collection of fingernails, dirty and bloody lying at the bottom of the jar. 

Michael hadn’t tried fighting away from the rogues for a while because he knew it was futile. But the sight of that jar of fingernails sent his insides squirming and his blood running cold. He bucked against Nook’s knee pressing him into the mattress, kicking his legs and trying to get his feet under him. In a second, Gent was on top of his legs, using his body to keep Michael down and grabbing his free arm in his deadly grip. Michael’s fractured arm screamed as it was twisted around again and Michael quit his frantic struggles as the pain stabbed up his arm. Nook had grabbed his hand and Michael felt Clock’s wiry fingers grab his hair, holding his head down and back into the mattress. 

It was another instance where he couldn’t move but he wanted to. He wanted to move so badly and there was too much adrenaline in his system to dissociate. His pulse was ringing through his ears at an extraordinary pace and he glanced around as far as he could with Clock holding his head down. He couldn’t see the hand that Nook was holding firmly. 

For a few hanging seconds, Michael didn’t know what was going on. Then there was an awful pain in his pointer finger, right where his nail was. The pain stabbed upwards into his hand, making his stomach roll around inside him. He couldn’t help the scream building in his throat from reaching out into the small room. He couldn’t help the shocks from the collar that directly followed his scream. 

He couldn’t move. The pain pulsed in his pointer finger like some living thing. Suddenly, the pain was in his middle finger as well and Michael couldn’t hold back his next scream, letting the collar shock him again as he sobbed. The pain seemed to come in waves, slackening and then growing as it passed like wildfire to his fourth and pinky fingers in turn before hopping over to his thumb. 

Michael felt faint, his harsh breathing no longer causing the collar to shock him. Maybe he had run the battery out. Nook dropped his hand and his arm smacked into his bare torso. Streaks of blood wiped across his skin as he tucked his injured and shaking hand as close to him as possible. 

Nook moved away, his leg lifting from Michael’s stomach. Maybe it was over? Fuck, he hoped so. He was shaking, just like he shook after every rape. Spots swam in front of his face. 

His hope that it was over was useless, Gent taking Nook’s place. Michael managed to weakly struggle but Clock’s hold on his head remained strong while Nook sat on Michael’s ankles. Much like Nook bringing out his jar of nails, Gent pulled out a small Tupperware container that had what looked like yellow rocks in it. It didn’t take long for Michael to realize that they were teeth. 

His heart turned over in his throat as Gent pulled a pair of pliers from the bag. Thankfully, this was when he fully passed out. He came to with a massive dull pain in his jaw, his tongue already pressing at the rough spot where the molar had been. Blood coated his tongue, causing him to gag as it ran down his throat. Luckily Clock let go of his head so he could turn to spit out the bloody saliva that filled his mouth. 

Michael gasped in pain, his hand shaking against his chest and his mouth feeling as if it were on fire. Next to the mattress lay the two containers. Michael could vaguely see what used to be his fingernails lying all bloody in the collection. How in the world did Nook get that many nails? He saw Gent dropping his new prize into his Tupperware as if it were a pretty stone instead of a tooth. Next to those two containers was a strange sort of necklace made up of brownish-black blobs. A waxy, yellowed string connected the blobs and Michael knew enough about how these men operated to know this had to be Clock’s “keepsake” or “memento”. 

It took Michael even longer than with the teeth and nails to realize what the beads of the necklace were. It was only after Clock had pulled a wicked and sharp-looking knife out of the bag and had grabbed Michael’s foot that the realization came. 

They were toes. 

Michael didn’t even have time to struggle after the horrible realization before there was a pinch in his foot and then one quick slice. The knife caught in his foot and Michael let out a howl. The collar jerked to life, shocking him repeatedly as Clock sawed into his foot. His leg shook involuntarily and Nook and Gent held him down as he jerked with pain. 

Glancing down, Michael stared through the haze of tears and sweat to see a space on his left foot where his fourth and pinky toe used to be. Clock held the small lumps of bloody flesh in his hand as if they were more valuable than Michael, carefully putting them in his pocket. There was a lot of blood and Michael could feel his pulse in his hand, his mouth and his foot equally as his heart pumped wildly. 

“Right,” Nook said, turning and grabbing Michael’s face again. His hand on Michael’s cheek rubbed against the new whole in his gums, making him screw up his face with the sudden increase in pain. 

His whole body was slowly going numb and he really wished he could pass out. “Stay with me, hun!” Nook shook Michael slightly to get his attention. Michael blearily looked up to see the three faces he hated most in the entire world looking down at him. Nook turned to the others. “Let’s go!” Nook’s hands disappeared from his face and Clock moved out of sight. After a second Michael felt the bond around his wrist fall away, the absence of the cuff making his arm feel suddenly lighter than air. 

Gent scooped one arm under Michael’s legs and the other under his shoulders, lifting him into the air bridal style. The arms hugged him too tight, his ribs creaking in protest and making it hard to breathe, let alone move. Michael didn’t really care that he was drooling blood onto Gent’s shirt. 

Where in the fuck were they taking him? The swish of plastic meant they were outside the room. Cool air blew on Michael’s naked body, making him wish for the umpteenth time that he still had his clothes. If not for the decency then maybe the feeling of slight protection. Experimentally, he kicked his legs but a bolt of pain from his foot stopped him and he dropped his head into his captor as dark spots swam in his vision. He was pretty sure they were leaving a trail of blood behind them. 

That was the minute when his brain got tired enough of the current shitty situation he was in and decided to give him a respite. Michael welcomed the absent feeling of dissociating from his body, seeming to watch from above as Gent carried him into a new room, this one full of boxes. 

Some were metal and rusted shut. Some were wooden. Some were new and some were old and all cast shadows through the room. The three rogues headed for the center of the room where some kind of small safe was sitting on its back. Nook pulled the lever on the front and the metal door swung upwards, leaving a space below. Clock grabbed onto Michael at this point, helping Gent stuff Michael’s body into the safe, folding his knees up to his chest to he would fit. 

Michael tried to get back into his body and managed it just as the rogues closed the door of the tiny box, plunging him into darkness. The lock right above him spun.

His entire body ached, his foot, mouth and hand all vying for his attention. No light came into the small space and Michael shifted, only to find that he couldn’t move. His legs were pressed onto one side of the metal safe while his back was pressed into the other. Both the bottom and the top of the safe cut into his shoulders. 

Claustrophobia threatened to make him hyperventilate but he shook the feeling off. It would all be okay. It had to be…right? The cops would come or Blue would ransom him. The rogues couldn’t hide him forever. 

Some part of Michael denied all of this. The rogues had locked him in here for a reason and some part of their sadistic ritual seemed to start when they were saying goodbye to one of their victims. 

Through the pain, Michael couldn’t see Lindsay’s face anymore. He couldn’t remember Gavin’s voice or the sounds of his friends laughing. Why was he even still alive? The pain bordered on numbness, consuming him. The rogues should have just killed him and gotten it over with. 

Maybe he would bleed to death still. 

Michael closed his eyes, though it wasn’t like he could see anything in the pitch blackness of the safe anyway. Part of him never wanted to open his eyes again. Part of him wanted to fade away and cease to exist. That part of him was becoming increasingly insistent. 

Michael let his mind wander, relieved to dissociate again. Hopefully, and with some fucking luck, he wouldn’t have to come back to this hellhole ever again. Hopefully, he would be able to drift away into nothingness. 

A grim hope, but a hope nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have a couple chapters saved up so check back in tomorrow for another installment. I will be updating a chapter every day through Saturday.
> 
> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.


	12. A Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The police get an unexpected package

It was the look on Griffon’s face that grabbed Gavin’s attention. He had lived with Geoff and Griffon for a little while and knew their family really well. She was a tough woman, easily able to stand up to Geoff’s sarcasm and speak her mind. So when she walked into the police station, where they were all gathering, carrying a brown package as if it might explode, the hair on the back of his neck stood up uneasily. 

Griffon brushed past the crowd of people and walked right up to detective Wilson, standing next to him until he looked over at her. She seemed almost small next to his big frame but she seemed more intimidated by the package she was holding that by the serious FBI guy. 

Gavin hurried over, knowing something was wrong. Burnie was looking over at them with concern, wondering what the sudden commotion was about. Griffon held out the package towards Wilson. Her clear voice filled the space easily, shutting up everyone who had been talking. “Some man dressed all in black gave this to me outside.” 

Gavin seemed to freeze, his heart the only thing still processing in his body. A man dressed all in black? Like the men who had taken Michael? Were they around here still? 

And Griffon had been approached by one of them. Fear flowed through his veins. Two FBI agents nodded at Wilson before hurrying out the door and Gavin got the sense they were going to track down this random threat. 

Wilson took the package with care from Griffon, taking a penknife and slicing through the tape holding the top closed. Gavin waited with baited breath and the box was opened. Burnie appeared right next to him, having heard what was going on. They all watched with anticipation as Wilson pulled out a sheet of paper. 

He glanced around, seeming to notice the small public gathering he had unintentionally received before reading the paper out loud for all to hear. 

“Last chance to ransom, 4am. The demand has been upped to $600,000. Ransom location is Freedom Park. No cops this time or you will never see these men again. To show you how serious we are—” Wilson paused, reading the rest of the message silently before putting the paper down on the table. 

Frustrated, Burnie grabbed the paper, reading the last words himself. “To show you how serious we are we have attached a gift…What the fuck does that mean?” 

Wilson’s hands were already back in the box, pulling out first an icepack and then a wad of gauze that seemed to be covered in something brownish. 

Blood. 

Gavin’s stomach flopped on the floor and he gagged slightly. “Jesus,” he heard Burnie say next to him as Wilson handed the gauze-wrapped object to another FBI agent who had rushed up with some bright blue gloves already on. She carefully took the gauze, pulling the end loose and unfolding it. 

Something rested there and Gavin stepped closer to see it before realizing what it was. There was an ear resting in the gauze, bloody and pale like some kind of dead creature. 

Gavin turned away, retching and gagging. Meg was suddenly there, pulling him away. She hadn’t seen it though and she kept glancing back at the group of people. Griffon’s face was white. 

Gavin stopped when he was over a trashcan, heaving but bringing up nothing. Faintly he heard Wilson giving orders. “Put this on ice and take it to the lab. Figure out whose it is.” 

Gavin heaved again. Right, whose ear was it? Seeing that glob of flesh and cartilage he hadn’t put together that the ear used to be on someone’s head and now it wasn’t. Those men were sawing off ears? What else were they doing? 

Burnie brushed past him with a serious look that seemed so out of place on his kind face. Meg had her arm around Gavin’s shoulders and he couldn’t help leaning into her a bit. Holy shit. Were they even still alive? 

Wilson was by his shoulder then, speaking softer than he had ever heard him speak. “I’m really sorry but I need you to pull yourself together. We need to go over the ransom exchange again. This time we are going to get it right, even if I have to shut down all the overzealous cops who want to pull over people right next to an exchange.” 

Wilson’s voice was filled with frustration. The first ransom money drop had failed because a cop who didn’t know what was going on had gotten within the perimeter and had pulled over a car because of a broken taillight. It sounded like Wilson wasn’t used to screwing up or having things go against the plan.

Gavin nodded, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand even though he hadn’t thrown up. He still felt a little woozy but followed Wilson anyway back into the room where everyone was. The offending box was gone, no doubt off to some fingerprint lab or maybe just stuffed out of sight. Griffon was standing there, fury and fear mixing on her face. Trevor and Matt were standing frozen over in a corner, as if wanting to do something and not knowing what. 

“Okay,” Wilson started, trying to get everyone’s attention. “I know we have dealt with a sudden shock and I don’t want to stop any of you from processing through that at your own pace. We have sent the package to the lab to do some testing.” 

Gavin noticed how he deliberately avoided using the word “ear”. He gagged again and felt Meg rub his back. “We need to be ready for the next drop. Since the package was delivered here, we have to assume they know you are working directly with us. It makes any ransom drop harder to do.” 

Wilson paused for a moment, obviously trying to decide what to say. “Ransom demands are hard, especially with groups like this because we don’t have anything on them. We don’t know who they are, who they work with or even all of what they do. We don’t know what to expect. Given the package that we just received…” Wilson paused again and Gavin choked back another gag. Griffon hugged Millie a little closer. 

“I need to warn you and I want you to be prepared. We may not be able to get them back. With the lengths these guys have gone to both stay hidden and increase the money demand, they have to be feeling the pressure. They may decide to kill them before we can get there.” 

Gavin might have heard a pin drop in the room, even though the carpet was pretty thick. Then came Burnie’s voice. “But we are going to try the money exchange, right?” 

Wilson nodded. “We don’t really have another option—” 

“Excuse me, Sir!” Rhody appeared in the doorway, hair askew as if she had been running her hands through it repeatedly. Behind her hovered the mouse-like computer whiz the FBI had brought with them. They were both smiling wide smiles that seemed somehow out of place.

“We do have another option, Sir!” Rhody continued. “We found them!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated!


	13. Rescue En Route

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a friend on the inside, a location for extraction and now they have a plan. The ball is in motion.

None of them could sleep anymore. Geoff kind of wanted to, to fade away into sleep and have the pain go away. It was the same pain that didn’t let him move and constricted his breath. The bleeding had finally stopped and he had managed to wrap the gauze around his head so it would stay in place. Thankfully they had given him enough for that at least. 

Ryan was pacing, his steps repeating like echoes through the still space. Jack was tying knots and then untying them in the rags lying in his cell. Jeremy was using his keys to carve his name into the cement wall. 

Geoff was worried. It was hard not to be in this place where anyone coming in could just decide to chop your ear off. Maybe it was this anxiety that had him struggling to his feet when he heard the slightest sound across the room. 

The vent covering was coming off again. In the dim light, Geoff watched as the screws once again fell to the floor and the grating was lowered. The young girl from before came into view, hopping out of the wall with ease. The rest of the AH members in the cages got to their feet as the girl ran over to them. She stopped in front of Jack’s cage before swinging off her backpack and pulling something out of a side pocket. 

She handed the object through the bars to Jack who almost dropped it and then she was running back across the room, almost diving into the vent and pulling the grating up behind her. 

Jack was staring incredulously at the object in his hand. He hit a button and light filled the dark space, blinding them all momentarily. “Shit, sorry!” Jack cursed, blocking the light by pressing the object against his chest. They all waited in tense silence for Red or another black-clad man to come demand answers but no one came.

“It’s my fucking phone! She got my phone!” Jack’s voice was filled with quiet disbelief as he looked down at his phone once more, quickly dropping the brightness down to almost nothing. 

There was a moment of shocked silence and Geoff wondered if maybe his one intact ear wasn’t hearing correctly. 

“Can you call anyone?” Ryan asked urgently. 

Jack swiped at his phone before shaking his head. “No bars, but…” he trailed off. “I don’t think I have to. My location has been turned on. And I have a new text from an unknown number.” He paused again. 

“Well, what the fuck does it say?” Jeremy asked impatiently. 

“Location received. We are on our way to get you out. Hang in there.” Jack read the words as if he didn’t believe they were real. 

Geoff was still trying to figure out what was going on. “Are you telling me…” he started, his mind slowly churning away, “that little girl somehow found your phone, turned on your location so the cops could find us and then gave it back to you?” There was a pause. 

“If we get out of here I am buying her whatever she wants,” Jeremy joked. 

“Holy shit,” Jack said quietly, sitting down. 

A weight lifted in Geoff’s chest, a spark of hope in his mind. Maybe it all wasn’t over. Maybe they didn’t have to wait on the edges of their seats for some ransom after all. We are on our way to get you out. Geoff could have cried. 

**************************************************************

“Here is the place!” Rhody exclaimed, leading an entourage over to her computer set-up. A map was up on her screen, a building complex just out of Austin highlighted in yellow. She typed a command into her computer as the mousy FBI tech guy made a more in depth analysis. 

“The place where they are holding them is a series of tunnels underground that have changed in use plenty over the past century. They were first created during the prohibition, then were taken over and used as a bomb shelter in the fifties, off-grid hangout in the seventies and most recently, the tunnels were bought by an independent contractor and completely redone. Unfortunately that contractor died in the late nineties and no one has given the property much thought. The place is not up to code on wiring and whole sections of it aren’t even on the grid.” 

Rhody took over, still typing but turning the blue prints of the building around so they could see the tunnels underneath. “Our main guess is that they are holding the guys in this section,” she said, highlighting a smaller section of the tunnels. It was a small section of the tunnels directly under the huge building above it. The tunnels themselves were a mess of dead ends and rooms that seemed to connect to other rooms. 

The mousy guy took over again. “There are only two entrances and exits to the tunnels from this building, which is the closest to the area we think the victims are in. One is near the front entrance of the building and one is inside. As for the building itself, it is an old factory building that has been abandoned for the better part of a century but we sent a cruiser to pass by when we got the first hit on the place and they say there is activity there.”

Gavin stared at the set-up a little dumbfounded. They had actually found where they were keeping the guys? 

“How did you find this location?” Wilson asked. 

Rhody nodded her head, pointing at another screen. “I met too many dead ends going through the link for the demands so I checked back in on their phones. I figured that maybe the subjects would slip up and turn one of the phones on. That is if the phones weren’t already destroyed. I could only ping one of them and narrowed the search area. Then it was as if we had a friend on the inside. The location on that phone was turned on and I got an exact location from Mr. Pattillo’s phone. I sent the phone a quick message that we were coming to get them out.” 

Wilson nodded, excitedly clapping the two techies on the back before turning to the crowd of Rooster Teeth employees that had followed him in to the room. “Go back to the waiting room. I will make sure I update you and a couple of you can come on the ride as well but I need to brief my team.”

Gavin followed the excited crowd back to the waiting room that he had spent most of his time in during the past four days. It seemed like no time at all and yet an age had passed. 

It was hard to wait the thirty minutes it took for Wilson’s team to get a plan together and get ready. Gavin hoped he would never have to look at the clock on the wall ever again. He felt tired but weirdly energized at the same time. They were going to free his friends! He was going to see them all again in a jiffy!

It was just past one in the morning when Wilson invited Gavin and Burnie to ride with the team to the “extraction site” as the team called it. 

As Gavin got into the back of one of the huge trucks the feds had, he hoped with all his being that his friends were still okay. 

“Please be okay. We’re coming for you,” he whispered as they pulled out of the police station and into the dark early hours of the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated!


	14. The Escape (part one)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An escape! Yay!

Ryan was sore all over. He didn’t want to tell the other guys but it was getting hard for him to breathe and there was a sharp pain in his gut. Plus the right side of his stomach was bloating as if the skin there were filling with liquid. Jack had stowed his phone as the battery was close to dying but Ryan could tell the other Achievement Hunters were excited. He didn’t want to worry them, but something inside him was wrong. Something that Red had done to him, whichever hit against his abdomen it had been, something had broken. 

Ryan panted quietly, leaning against the wall. He could feel sweat dripping down his face even though he knew the room was cool. 

Faint voices reached them, echoing through the dim room. Ryan almost didn’t pay them any mind. Every now and then it was possible to hear certain voices reverberating through the honeycomb-like hallways of this place. Then they got closer and louder until he could tell it was just one voice holding half of what seemed to be an argument. He recognized the voice as belonging to Junior, the young medic. 

The voice grew louder and two figures appeared in the doorway. The woman Annie seemed to be pulling Junior along, silently arguing with him. Ryan detangled the echoing argument Junior was spitting in her direction, obviously trying to be quiet and not succeeding. 

“—o, it’s not something we have to do, Annie! Just follow orders and everything will be fine. You don’t have to watch after every person they bring in. You already have that girl to look after for Christ’s sake!” He seemed to notice where he was and that the figures in the cages were all staring at him. 

Annie pointedly shushed him, gesturing at the row of cages as if imploring him to do something. Junior’s hard gaze softened a bit as he glanced at the Achievement Hunters in the cages. He sighed, glancing around nervously. “Blue and Red don’t know I’m here and if they do then I am a dead man, understand?” The guys nodded and Ryan watched carefully from the bars of his cage as Junior took some cautious steps forward, prodded by Annie. 

“They are planning on killing you. I heard them talking about it. Annie, bleeding heart as always, has convinced me to get you out before they come. They should be by any minute so…um…” Junior was shaking with nerves, jumpily sending glances over his shoulders as he pulled a set of keys from his pocket. Picking one, he unlocked Geoff’s cage before heading onto Jeremy’s. 

Geoff stumbled out of his cage and Annie clasped his hands in hers. Ryan could see her eyes shining in delight as Junior moved onto open Jack’s cell and then Ryan’s. Hearing the lock click off, he stumbled out of his cell. Junior met his eyes and gave him a concerned look. 

“You need a hospital,” Junior commented quietly so that only Ryan could hear. 

“We all do,” Ryan huffed in return. “Thank you.” Ryan stared into Junior’s face, hoping the man would realize his gratitude for helping them. 

“Don’t thank me yet,” Junior responded, swallowing quickly. “You haven’t escaped yet. Annie can show you the way. And…I was never here.” Junior hurried out of the room, stuffing his keys back into his pocket. 

Ryan walked over and clasped Jack’s shoulder. “Maybe we can meet the police outside.” 

“Come on,” Geoff called quietly from across the room. “Maybe you missed the part where they were coming to kill us but we gotta get out of here.” He was following Annie who was motioning them through the door across the room, disappearing into the dark beyond. 

“Christ,” Jeremy muttered before following Geoff, Jack and Ryan behind him. Ryan’s heart pounded in his chest and pain pulsed through his bruises as he moved but fortunately the adrenaline of the escape masked the pain enough that he was able to fight through it. Now they just had to get out of this place without being caught. 

Jeremy caught up to Geoff, the hair on the back of his neck standing up with nerves. They were actually escaping! The hallways they were walking through were narrow, with doorways branching off to either side. Annie walked through the place as if she knew every inch, but Jeremy could tell by the tight way she was holding her shoulders that she was on high alert for anyone else coming along. 

Their five pairs of footsteps sounded exceptionally loud and Annie turned around more than once to shush them. It was when they carefully rounded yet another corner that Jeremy’s questions couldn’t be held back any more. 

“Where are we going? Is she leading us out of here? What about Michael?” His whispered voice was extremely quiet and only really meant for Geoff’s good ear but Annie still turned around to give him a tight but understanding smile. She made some kind of motion with her hands but Jeremy couldn’t figure it out. 

They paused at some sort of intersection, a long hallway before them that curved out of sight and double large doors on their right. Annie was looking cautiously through the window in one of the big doors, apparently waiting for something. 

Jack noticed Ryan lean heavily against the wall. “You okay, man?” At first he wasn’t sure that Ryan had heart him but then his friend shakily nodded. Jack could see beads of sweat lining Ryan’s forehead and even in the dim light he seemed pale. He frowned, worried, and was about to tell Annie that they really needed to get out of here when one of the big metal doors opened abruptly, letting a dark-clad man through. 

Jack tensed, adrenaline pumping through his veins, sure that they were made. The other guys reacted in a similar way, Jeremy flattening himself to the wall. 

However, Annie didn’t seem surprised, quickly closing the door after the man was through. He pulled off his mask, letting a mop of sandy hair loose, and bent down to hug the old lady. 

“Hi, mom.” 

The man in black looked over the four Achievement Hunters, nodding slightly in seeming relief. “Good, you got them out already. How did you convince Junior?” Annie shrugged and he nodded as if that were answer enough. “Maggie likes them a lot, for some reason.” 

He turned to the men, leaning forward to shake Geoff’s hand, who did so automatically. “My name is Paolo. We don’t have time to give you a full version of what is going on but just know that Blue doesn’t have as many backers as he thinks he does. There are a lot of us who don’t agree with him taking you when you did nothing wrong in the first place.” Jeremy shook the offered hand a little dumbfounded at what was going on. 

Paolo continued with his story, shaking Jack and Ryan’s hands before leading the way cautiously down the dim hallway. “You’ve met my daughter, Maggie. I just want her to be safe and out of this place. Blue promised safety along with blackmailing my entire family into his scheme, and he’s given us nothing but grief. If we can get out with you, and blow the whistle on Blue, then that’s what we need to do.” 

“Maggie’s the little girl? She got me my phone back,” Jack said quietly as Paolo paused to look down another hallway before quickly leading them across and further into the web of halls. 

Paolo nodded. “She’s brilliant, came up with that part of the escape plan all on her own.” Geoff could see the proud glow in his face, feeling a strange conflict in his emotions. This could have been one of the men who grabbed them in the first place. But now he was helping them escape and he had a daughter and Annie was his mother?! 

The father in him wanted to trust this man, father to other father. Geoff didn’t have time to figure out his mixed emotions before Paolo stopped in front of a particular door, carefully peeking through the small window to make sure nobody was there. He gestured to them to follow him as he led the way through the doorway. Geoff followed right behind him, grinding to a halt when he saw the room ahead. 

“This is some kind of supply closet?” Jeremy said with a questioning tone. 

“I thought you were leading us out!” Ryan barked, distrust in his pained voice evident. 

Paolo raised his hands, trying to assuage his fears. “You want your other man back, right? This is the last place people saw him.” 

Understanding dawned in the AH men but as they looked at the room, they grew confused again. 

Jeremy walked further into the room, swatting aside the string of a cobweb that covered his way. Confusion rocked through him. The room was full of boxes. Some were made out of metal, some of wood. Some were on shelves on the wall but others were stacked haphazardly. Some had locks keeping them shut but others were built like safes, with a combination lock and a lever to open them. 

“I am going to be waiting outside. We don’t have very long. Red will be looking for you soon and if he catches us, we are all dead.” Paolo’s tone was serious, obviously believing what he was saying. He carefully walked back out into the hall, shutting the door behind him. Quiet reigned in the room.

Annie walked forward and touched Jeremy calmly on the arm. Jeremy looked at her questioningly as she pressed a shred of paper into his hand. 

Jack was the first to break the silence. “He said Michael was supposed to be in here.” Doubt filled his voice, as if he suspected some kind of trap. 

There was a moment of silence. “You…you don’t think Michael’s in one of these…boxes…do you?” Geoff asked the entire group. 

Jeremy cleared his throat. “Well, Annie just handed me a sheet of paper with three numbers on it. 7-25-14. I mean, it could be a date but…”

“…it could be a combination,” Ryan finished. 

Annie nodded her head excitedly, clapping her hands a bit that they had figured it out. There was a moment. 

“Michael’s in one of these fucking boxes!” Geoff exclaimed. He walked agitatedly into the room, eyes scanning the piles of different kinds of boxes surrounding them. There had to be over twenty boxes stuffed into the small room but the exclamation had the other guys searching the boxes as well. 

“Has to be a box with a combination lock!” Jeremy reminded. He was peering around on the shelves but almost fell head over heels when a large box lying on the ground tripped him. 

“Ow!” he said, rubbing his toe. The box he had tripped over was a safe, tipped over onto its back. It had a combination lock. 

“What’s the combination again?” Ryan asked from across the room. 

“7-25-14,” Jeremy called back after glancing at the scrap of paper in his hand. He leaned forward and twisted the lock on the front of the safe he had tripped over, hearing the tumblers twisting inside. 

Ryan cursed from across the room, rattling a lock. “Not this one!” 

“7…25…” Jack was counting across the room as he turned another lock. 

Jeremy held his breath as he locked the 14 into place, hearing no defining click but pulling on the latch anyway. His stomach dropped as the safe door opened and his tongue turned heavy and useless. He couldn’t even really hear Jack’s voice letting them know it wasn’t the right lock while his brain tries to process what he was seeing.

“Jeremy’s got it!” cried a voice. Geoff’s. Jeremy could hear him approaching and he could suddenly talk again, letting out a string of swears. 

Michael lay naked and covered in blood inside the box, knees forced to his chest. His body barely fit inside the box itself, his head forced in a way that Jeremy couldn’t see his face. But he could recognize the shoulders and the curly hair of his friend. 

“Nononono, fucking shit!” He heard himself saying hoarsely, hands fluttering uselessly and not knowing what to do. 

Geoff was at his side then, staring over his shoulder at the figure in the box a second before leaning down and gently touching Michael’s arm. To Jeremy’s great surprise, the body twitched and he heaved a relieved sigh. Michael was alive. 

Geoff scrambled to the other side of the box. “Help me get him out!” he ordered and Jeremy nodded wordlessly. Jack and Ryan appeared next to him, letting out startled sounds when they saw what was in the safe. 

Jeremy reached his hands into the box, grasping Michael’s leg and pulling upwards. Geoff had grabbed Michael’s back and together they were hoisting the figure up and out into the open. 

Michael’s skin was hot to the touch and Jeremy’s hands almost slipped in sweat. “Help us, grab him!” Geoff ordered quickly as he struggled under the weight of Michael’s limp body. 

Jack reached down and grabbed an arm, heaving up and over the rim of the box. Ryan grabbed at Michael’s shoulders, helping lay him down on the concrete. 

Michael’s head hung, his eyes closed and as Jeremy took in the full extent of his wounds; he suddenly wondered if the flinch had been a fluke and Michael was actually dead. 

Geoff leaned down, his remaining ear hovering over Michael’s face. After a second he moved his head down to Michael’s chest, holding it there for a second before looking up with an expression of relief. “He’s still breathing and his heartbeat is okay for now.” 

Ryan sat down quickly, rubbing his hands through his hair in relief. Annie smiled from near the door. She looked just as relieved as Jeremy felt. Jack kneeled at Michael’s side, gently wiping Michael’s hair back from his face. “Michael, buddy?” Michael seemed to move slightly at the sound of Jack’s voice. “He’s shaking,” Jack commented, concerned. 

Remembering that he friend was naked, Jeremy scrambled to his feet, sliding down the sweatpants they had given him but leaving his boxers. He thrust the material towards Geoff. “Help me put these on him.” Geoff nodded, taking the pants but stopping frozen at Michael’s feet. 

“What the hell?” Jeremy had never heard Geoff use that tone of voice before. He sounded as if he were trying to wake up from a dream, in denial that anything he saw actually existed. Jeremy leaned forward, trying to see the reason for Geoff’s pause…

…and his stomach dropped and twisted inside of him like he were on a roller coaster and didn’t know it. Michael’s foot was a mess of blood but the main issue was that it was no longer the correct shape for a foot. He was missing his two last toes. A small pool of blood was forming under his foot as if the wound was fresh enough that it hadn’t yet stopped bleeding. 

Geoff thrust the sweatpants back at Jeremy, pulling off his own shirt with a vengeance and wrapping it around the wound. Jack was staring speechless at the foot and Ryan was slowly shaking his head. 

“Who would do something like this?” Ryan’s voice sounded far away. 

A groan came from Michael and Jack was immediately back to mothering him. “Michael? Are you with us? Can you open your eyes for me?” Through Jack’s crooning, Geoff was fastening his shirt around Michael’s foot in a kind of makeshift bandage. 

Ryan grabbed the sweatpants from Jeremy, who was still frozen in shock, and helped Geoff drag them onto Michael. 

Suddenly there was a hand on Jeremy’s arm and he looked over to see that Michael had reached out and grabbed him. Jeremy trembled slightly when he saw that the hand had no fingernails, the fingers coming to bloody stumps. He was distracted as Michael heaved a bigger breath, his eyes fluttering open. 

“Michael?” Jack asked, squeezing the lads shoulder. 

“Hey, Jack,” came a quiet voice. Jeremy felt the grip on his arm tighten as Michael’s gaze moved over to him. Almost instantly Michael’s body convulsed and Jeremy could see some kind of blue shock come from a plastic and metal collar around Michael’s neck. 

“What the hell?” 

Annie hurried forward, pushing past Jeremy to get to Michael, pulling loosely on the collar. She rotated the thing until she was holding a small lock that seemed to hold the thing on. A small key appeared in her hand and her face grew focused as she unlocked the lock, pulling the collar off carefully before flinging it across the room. Jeremy could hear it buzzing as if still trying to shock its subject. 

The side of Michael’s face was swollen, blood smeared across his temple. His eyes were tired and wary. “Where are the rogues?” Michael’s voice came out almost panicked though he couldn’t seem to talk above a whisper. 

“They aren’t here,” Geoff was quick to say. 

“We’re getting you out of here,” Jack responded to Michael’s puzzled expression. 

A new light seemed to enter Michael’s face and he struggled to sit up. Jeremy pulled lightly on his arm, trying to help, while Jack supported his back. “What’s the plan?” Michael asked, and Jeremy was relieved to see that Michael seemed to be okay. 

Annie waved at them, trying to get their attention, tapping her wrist in a familiar gesture. 

“Yeah, time to get going,” Geoff agreed. Jeremy threw an arm around Michael’s back and helped him stand cautiously. Michael hopped a bit on his good foot, teeth gritted. 

Suddenly Ryan, who was closest to the door, shushed them all. Fear was evident on his face as he pressed himself into the wall. There were voices and feet right outside the door and a familiar voice was coming through the air. 

“Paolo! Where are they?!” The voice was filled with fury. 

It was Red. He had found them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving kudos and/or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.


	15. The Escape (part two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are so close to escaping! What will get in their way this time?

BANG! The sound of the gunshot made them all jump and Ryan skittered back towards their group as they huddled. Screams and shouts reigned in the hallway and then there was more gunfire and more incoherent yelling.

Jeremy’s heart was in his throat. They were going to die. They were all going to die. 

“AHHHH!” a voice screamed, filled with rage. Suddenly there were no more gunshots. One set of footsteps seemed to stagger outside the doorway and suddenly the door was thrown open. 

Paolo’s lifeless body hit the floor with a crack, his face too white and the blood around his nose too red. His shirt was wet with blood and it was Red who stepped over his corpse and into the room. 

Paolo’s body was keeping the door open and Jeremy could see more figures lying still in the hallway outside. What the fuck had happened? Red’s face was dark, his eyes pieces of shrapnel as he glared at the occupants of the room. He held a pistol in one hand and blood spattered his shirt. 

His gaze lighted on Annie who bravely stepped in front of the group of men. “YOU!” he snarled and in one movement had lifted the gun and shot. 

BANG!!! The blast filled the small room, making Jeremy’s ears ring as he felt drops of blood hit his face. Annie collapsed like a ragdoll. 

Speechless he looked up at Red as the man raised the gun again, a look of almost satisfied fury on his face. 

A high clear voice filled the space. “NO!” 

BA-BANG!!!!

Two shots fired in the room in quick succession. Jeremy stumbled back as if someone had punched him in the gut, trying to get his feet under him as Michael swayed against him. 

Red’s face showed a brief confusion, a spot of wetness appearing in his chest near his heart. Then his legs gave way and he fell to the floor with a loud smack. 

Behind him stood the small girl, Maggie, still holding her father’s pistol outstretched. There were tears in her brown eyes as she slowly lowered the gun. She looked older in that moment than she ever should have. 

The grating on the wall was swinging from one loose screw, the only thing really moving in the room. 

Jeremy felt strange. There was air inside his body that was not supposed to be there. Michael had grabbed onto Jack’s shoulder when Jeremy had stumbled so Jeremy was able to move his hand to his stomach just left of his belly button. 

Red liquid was dripping through the grey fabric of his shirt. The pain didn’t reach him but his legs suddenly couldn’t support him and he crashed to the floor. 

Jeremy pulled himself into a sitting position, hand clamped over the bullet wound. He could feel air moving inside his chest where air was not supposed to be and the pain hit him. 

“Jeremy!” Ryan called, dropping down next to him quickly followed by Geoff. Jack and Michael stood over them, the latter supported by the former. All the faces around him showed shock except for one. The girl across the room was gazing down at Annie’s body with the saddest look Jeremy had ever seen. 

“Let’s go,” Jeremy said suddenly, getting his feet under him roughly before trying to stand. 

“Whoa!” Geoff yelled, grabbing Jeremy’s arm as he swayed a little from blood loss. Spots swam in his vision but Jeremy pushed through. 

“We have to go!” He said as strongly as he could. “What if more of the men come around here? We have to move. Now is our chance to get out.” He looked over at the girl who was now crouched next to Paolo’s body, carefully closing his eyes with one finger. “We have to get here out of here.” 

Geoff nodded, slinging Jeremy’s arm over his shoulder. Jeremy’s legs still shook so he was glad for the support as Ryan led the way towards the door. He could feel warm blood slipping through his fingers but the pain was muffled by adrenaline. They were so close to getting out. If they were found now…

The girl looked up as Ryan approached. “Do you know the way out of here?” he asked, his voice soft. The girl nodded quietly, casting a long look at her father and then her grandmother in turn before visibly pulling herself together and getting to her feet. The gun stayed on the floor where she had set it down. 

She led the way out of the room full of boxes, past the bodies and back the way they had come down the hall. Ryan followed first, then came Geoff supporting Jeremy, and Jack with Michael brought up the rear of their disheveled group. 

She was fast, almost running and the men had to hurry in an attempt to follow her as she took a couple turns. They all skidded to a halt as gunfire sounded above them as if coming from an upstairs area. The police? Was their rescue team here?

The girl named Maggie led them on again, her face tight with concentration as she blazed through a doorway. Ryan almost ran into her as she stopped suddenly causing those behind him to bump into each other. 

They had entered a large room that reminded Ryan of some old warehouses on the outskirts of Austin. The ceiling was high and stairs rain up the side of the room opposite them to a pair of doors. 

Ryan figured this was the way out. The only problem was the three figures standing between them and their exit. 

Nook stepped forward. “Well, what do we have here?” 

Nook sneered at them, an almost insane look on his face as gunfire could be heard through the door at the top of the stairs. “Trouble in paradise! The rats have escaped their holding cells and found their way out of the maze!” 

Gent stepped forward threateningly, holding a long piece of rebar like a weapon. Clock snickered behind them. 

“Let us through!” Ryan called, pulling the girl back and behind him. She went willingly, cowering slightly. 

“Make me,” Nook snarled. Ryan sized them up. Only Gent was holding any kind of weapon and they also had them outnumbered but the three rogues were healthy and strong. Ryan didn’t like the odds. 

The handle of the door at the top of the stairs rattled, making the rogues look back nervously. Nook turned back to face them, catching sight of Michael leaning against Jack near the back. His face darkened. 

“You have what’s mine!” Nook ran forward. Adrenaline surged through Ryan and he grabbed Maggie behind him, dragging her out of the way of Nook’s rage. 

Jeremy fell to the floor as Geoff came forward to meet Nook. Nook’s arms were outstretched but somehow Geoff managed to punch him several times in the chest. At least, it seemed like he was punching him. 

Nook reeled back, a surprised look on his face and Ryan noticed Jeremy’s keys clutched in Geoff’s hand, the small knife flicked open. Gent and Clock seemed to sense that something was off and they both stepped forward toward Nook who was backing towards them. His hands fluttered at his chest before he sunk slowly to his knees. 

Nook’s face lifted with a snarl to see Geoff staring white-faced at him. Michael was cringing into Jack who had shoved him behind him in a defensive move. Gent finally seemed to understand what was going on, and lifted the rebar in his hand with a howl of rage. 

Maggie screamed. 

The doors at the top of the stairs blew open, letting in a cloud of dust. 

Gent turned in seeming slow motion towards the new threat as men in swat gear entered through the door. He roared at them, lifting the bar threateningly and there were several loud shots. 

Gent fell in the same slow motion. Dust from the door explosion illuminated tracks of laser sights swinging as the rescue team came down the stairs, hovering on his large body. 

Clock screamed, leaping forward to grab Gent’s final weapon, the noise cut off as bullets ripped into him as well. 

Nook quietly collapsed, rolling onto his side. 

“Put your hands on your head!” Voices were yelling those words and Ryan complied, making sure Maggie was doing the same. He looked over to see that Jeremy was still on the floor, and that Jack was slowly dropping Michael to a sitting position. 

Geoff had dropped the knife and keys, his arms shaking as he put his hands behind his head. Flashlights from the cops illuminated his tattoos and Ryan figured absently that this would be a really cool cut scene in a video game. The lighting was just right and everything still seemed to be happening in slow motion. 

He snapped back into reality as one of the police held a screen up while looking at him and nodded. The rest of them were nodding as well, checking identities on the other Achievement Hunters. 

“You’re safe now, Sir!” A voice said and Ryan slowly dropped his arms. He felt Maggie hugging his side and he put an arm around her. 

An officer was putting cuffs on Nook though Ryan couldn’t tell if the rogue was alive or dead. Lights found Jeremy and Michael on the floor. “We need two stretchers down here. Subjects secure. Make sure we have several ambulances on standby.” 

Ryan slowly stood up, looking towards the others. Maggie followed his lead. Everything was suddenly is fast forward, his brain not quite keeping up. Figures were running down the stairs carrying stretchers. Jeremy was lifted onto one and Michael carefully lay down on the other. Then his friends were being carried away and he didn’t want to lose sight of either of them. They had come too far to lose each other now. 

He followed the stretchers, Maggie holding tightly to his hand with Geoff and Jack right beside him. 

The pain in his side was growing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is still more to come! 
> 
> Please consider leaving kudos and/or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.


	16. Rescue to Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Achievement Hunters have been rescued but the trip to the hospital is anything but calming. As the nurses and doctors try to figure out what's wrong with them the rescued Achievement Hunter's are trying desperately to keep track of one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: blood, mention of sexual abuse

Gavin couldn’t just wait in the car, not when a police force of over forty officers was going to storm the building they had drawn up to. He leaned against the cruiser next to him, Burnie at his side, and together they watched the small army of FBI agents and police enter the building. 

The waiting was the hard part, not knowing what exactly was going on. Gavin glanced nervously at the three ambulances lined up, the EMT’s ready to deal with whatever came out that door. Gavin really hoped they wouldn’t be needed. 

He started slightly when he heard the first gunshots, sharing a nervous look with Burnie. For some reason he had assumed there wouldn’t be a firefight and the police would just get his boys and come out. 

Detective Segski was next to them and glanced over with sympathy in his eyes. “The waiting is the hardest part. Don’t worry. Those officers are the best trained in the country.” Gavin felt himself nodding, wanting to be reassured. 

The radio on Segski’s shoulder buzzed to life. “We’ve got a barricaded door!” Gavin’s heart was in his throat, as much as he tried to calm down. More gunshots could be heard faintly. A long moment of silence…

… “We have them!” 

“We need two stretchers down here. Subjects secure. Make sure we have several ambulances on standby!” 

Relief and fear fought inside Gavin as he saw EMT’s carrying stretchers towards the door in a hurry. They were safe, but were they okay? A similar thought process seemed to be happening in Burnie’s head and Gavin couldn’t restrain himself as he followed him forward, towards the police perimeter. 

Segski didn’t stop them. In fact, the detective was walking with them, gesturing to a police officer that they were allowed to approach. Gavin found himself by one of the ambulances and watched the entryway with anticipation. Where were they? 

The silence was intense, stronger even than waiting to see if they were in the building. Gavin had absolutely no idea what to expect. 

Then the door was opening, police gesturing EMT’s and a group of people through. Two figures were on stretchers, four more walking behind. Gavin started forward, almost unaware of his feet moving under him. 

Geoff was walking with an absent look on his face, shirtless in the night air. The bandage around his head almost glowed in the red and blue flashing lights. Gavin almost gagged again. So it had been Geoff’s ear. Buzzing sounded in his head, shock filling his brain. 

Jack walked behind Geoff, the same absent look on his face as if he didn’t even realize what was happening. He wasn’t wearing his glasses. Ryan brought up the rear, his hand resting on the shoulder of a young girl. Gavin didn’t recognize her. Who was she? 

Wait, Geoff, Jack and Ryan were accounted for. So the one’s on the stretchers…no. 

No. His brain fought again for the world to make sense but even as he drew closer, close enough to see Jeremy’s white face and Michael’s curly hair, the world continued to fuck him over. 

Gavin was distracted as he noticed Ryan give the small girl a little push in Jack’s direction. The girl looked back at him, a worried look in her face. And that’s when Ryan slowly stopped walking and then fell in slow motion until he hit the ground. 

Everything seemed to speed up after that. 

“We need a stretcher!” from a policeman and the hurrying of EMT’s dodging around Gavin and Burnie. 

“Holy shit! Ryan!” Jack’s voice drifted weakly through the air. Gavin noticed that the girl was clutching Jack’s hand. Geoff was looking anxiously over his shoulder as an EMT was leading him almost forcefully to the back of an ambulance, fussing over the bandage on his head. 

Burnie was grabbing onto his arm, shoving him and Gavin looked around, confused. “Go!” Burnie was telling him tersely, his face lined with stress as he took in the scene around them. 

Gavin turned the way he was being directed to see an EMT hurriedly motioning him forward. “If you’re coming with us, get in now!” Gavin’s feet were moving by themselves again as he hopped in the back of the nearest ambulance. 

There wasn’t much space and the EMT pointed him to a small seat. Jeremy’s stretcher was loaded into the back, the medics working on him hurriedly. Gavin couldn’t even really see what they were doing but then there was a series of commands and the doors were slammed. 

Then they were moving. Gavin had never seen Jeremy so pale, dark circles around his eyes. There was blood everywhere and Gavin tried desperately to stop himself from puking. 

“Talk to him!” came a command from the medic closest to him. 

Ok. Gavin felt himself shaking a bit but tried to pull it together as he sat forward, trying to get his friends attention. “Little J! You look like a pile of shite right now!” 

Jeremy smiled weakly at him. “You’re such a prick,” he managed to say. Gavin smiled, hating that there were suddenly tears in his eyes. 

“Right, well that’s not very nice!” Jeremy seemed too distracted to retort so Gavin rambled a bit, not really caring what he was talking about. The ambulance suddenly slowed down and the EMT opened the doors, gesturing that Gavin should jump out. He did so and then he was surrounded by doctors and nurses. 

They were in the intake ER bay for ambulances and Jeremy’s stretcher was unloaded quickly, Gavin stumbling as he tried to keep up. The EMT was yelling updates at the doctors.

“Patients name is Jeremy Dooley. He has a GSW to the abdomen. We gave him two cc’s of morphine on the way in. No known allergies. One unit of o-neg already administered in the field.” The hallway was long and Gavin swerved around medical professionals as another team raced by him. 

Suddenly a nurse was in his way. “Sir, you can’t come any farther. Follow the signs to the waiting room on the third floor!” Gavin could only watch as Jeremy was taken through a set of doors and out of sight. 

There was a commotion behind him and he turned to see Burnie following another gurney. Gavin could barely recognize the person in it, but the curly hair gave it away.

“Michael, my boi!” Again the nurse was there as the gurney rushed past them and out of sight, this time stopping Burnie as well from following Michael away. 

“Please, follow the signs up to the third floor waiting room. We will give you updates as soon as possible!” Burnie touched Gavin’s shoulder and pointed to a sign that said “3rd Floor Waiting Area” with an arrow pointing towards a stairwell. Grimly, he followed Burnie up the stairs and into a relatively empty waiting room. His head was buzzing with shock. 

There was sudden silence as the door behind them swung shut, leaving the calm hospital noises surrounding them. Where were the others? 

**********************************************************************

Jack rode in a cop car all the way to the hospital, following the ambulance Ryan and Geoff had been loaded into. Next to him sat Maggie, the girl from that place. She was holding his hand with a tight grip, obviously scared and Jack was trying his best to remain calm for her sake. 

The hospital was noisy but they were quickly directed up to the 3rd floor waiting room, followed by several policemen including detective Wilson. The stairwell was cold for some reason. Jack’s thoughts spun, his breathing still feeling rather forced. Maggie followed him through the doorway into the waiting area, hugging close to his side when she saw the two men already there. 

Jack braced himself, letting Gavin crash into him, hugging him back enthusiastically. He felt Burnie patting him on the shoulder and reached out an arm to hug him too. 

The policemen followed him into the room and he disengaged Gavin’s hold on him. Detective Wilson, who Jack had been hurriedly introduced to, gestured that he should take a seat. “Mr. Pattillo, we of course want to make sure the doctors check you over but we have a couple of very important questions first. If you feel up to answering them of course.” 

Maggie sat herself in one of the chairs, looking around the room with something like awe in her face. Jack sat next to her and turned to the detective. “I’ll try my best to answer your questions.”

*****************************************************

Geoff struggled against the hands trying to hold him still, panic fluttering in his chest. Where were the others? 

“Please, sir! You have to stay still!” 

“Where are they? Where are they? Ryan?” Geoff struggled against the hands holding him. Another doctor ran over.

“What’s the problem?” 

A nurse answered. “He’s a patient from the FBI case. He wants to know where the other men from that group are!” 

There was a loud noise to his right and Geoff looked over to see that the doctor had moved the hanging curtain to reveal another team of nurses and doctors working on a still form. 

“Ryan!” Geoff called over to the patient, stilling his protests as he anxiously checked his friend over. The nurses had taken his friends’ shirt off and were examining the bruising covering his torso. 

“There we go,” murmured the doctor, carefully removing the gauze from around Geoff’s head. He sucked in a breath and turned to the nurse next to him. “Get a central line in and make sure he gets some morphine. He must be in a lot of pain. His ear has been cut off.” 

Geoff was trying to listen to what the doctors working on Ryan were talking about which was hard with really only one good ear to work with. He caught a couple snatches of conversation.

“He has extensive…need to alleviate the pressure…hematoma this large…We need an OR stat!” A nurse jogged away to a large board on the wall, writing Ryan’s name next to the number four, erasing a name that was already up there. 

A hand tapped his shoulder gently and Geoff turned to see the doctor next to him trying to get his attention. “Sir? I need you to relax and sit back for me, okay? We have you on an IV drip to get your fluid levels back up and I am going to put some local anesthesia near your ear so I can get a full look at what is going on, okay?” 

Geoff’s heart was still pounding away. He hadn’t even noticed the IV in his arm and turning his head he was able to see the nurse push a little clip onto his finger, the machine next to him rapidly starting to beep in time with his heart. 

“Sir, I need you to calm down. Can you take a couple breaths for me?” Geoff nodded absently, eyes still looking around the room. He could only see Ryan but he knew the others should be here also. A name caught his attention on the board. Jeremy Dooley. Okay, that made sense. The lad had been shot after all. 

Geoff took a deep breath. Jack hadn’t been hurt that bad so he probably wasn’t even in this area of the hospital. Plus that gent could take care of himself. Geoff took another breath and the beeping slowed on the monitor. 

“Good,” the doctor breathed and Geoff felt a pinch near his ear. Then the pain slowly faded away and was replaced by an odd numbness. Geoff almost lifted his hand to see what was going on but another sleepy feeling was numbing his joints. The nurse pushed him back into the pillow behind him. 

“Feeling better?” the nurse asked and Geoff nodded sleepily. 

“Okay, Geoff? I need you to be really still for me, okay?” Geoff almost nodded again in response but instead gave a grunt of affirmation. 

There was a sudden increase in movement next to them as nurses raised the bars on Ryan’s bed and started wheeling him away from the wall. The beeping on the monitor rapidly increased and against doctors orders Geoff sat up rapidly. 

“It’s okay! It’s okay! They have to take him to surgery. You’re all in a hospital now, you are all in the best of hands, okay?” Despite the calming words it took Geoff a moment to collect himself. 

They were out of that facility. They would all be okay, right? Worry still gnawed in his belly but he took a couple of breaths, letting the numbness drip over his skin again. “There we go,” the doctor breathed, moving back to Geoff’s ear. Geoff couldn’t tell what he was doing but didn’t really care. 

Wait, where was Michael? That new thought made his heart race yet again even though he made sure not to move for the nice doctor. Michael had been taken from him once before and he had found him almost dead in a box. Where was he? 

“Keep breathing for me, Geoff!” the doctor reminded him. Geoff took a breath but kept scanning the place for Michael. Where was he? 

A scream split the orderly chaos of the ER. It was sudden and loud, causing everyone to jump and look towards the noise. Another scream sounded and Geoff recognized the voice. 

In a second he was out of the hospital bed, brushing past the distracted nurses. He was running, impatiently ripping the IV out of his arm when it tried to keep him back. Blood dripped down his arm but he skidded to a halt in the middle of the busy ER, trying to find Michael. 

Another scream led him to the end of the opposite wall where a team of nurses was trying to restrain the lad. “Michael!” Geoff yelled, jumping forward out of the arms of the nurses who were trying to get him back to his bed. 

He somehow managed to get through the nurses hovering around the other Achievement Hunter’s bed, taking Michael’s hand in his own. “Michael! It’s me! It’s Geoff!”

“Geoff?” Michael’s voice was still panicked but he clung to Geoff’s hand like his life depended on it. 

“We’re in a hospital, Michael. These people are here to help you! You’re safe. The rogues are dead. They’re dead. They can’t hurt you anymore.” Geoff hardly cared that he was sobbing. 

Michael relaxed slightly, leaning back against his pillows. The nurse next to Michael stuck a needle in his arm, quickly pushing down the plunger. Michael’s eyes flickered a little and his face relaxed more.

Geoff’s doctor was at his shoulder, gently urging him away. “I’m not leaving!” Geoff said stubbornly. “Not again! I can’t leave him all alone again!” 

The doctor didn’t try to fight him, instead pushing aside a curtain and pulling Geoff over to the bed just behind it. “You can be right here. He isn’t going anywhere and neither are you. But I need to get a good look at that ear and I can’t do that with you running all over the ER.” His voice was compassionate but firm and Geoff nodded, his eyes still on Michael who was sleepily blinking at the ceiling while the nurses worked on cleaning his skin of all the dried blood. 

Geoff sank onto the bed, feeling the pinch of a needle going into his arm and feeling the husky daze that followed it. Hands pushed him down onto the bed but he could still see Michael so that’s all that mattered. 

‘You aren’t alone this time,’ Geoff thought sleepily. Images kept coming up behind his eyes of Michael getting dragged away that first time, kicking his heels against the ground as that big rogue pulled roughly at his arm. ‘We got you,’ Geoff thought. ‘We’re safe.’ 

The doctors waited until the two sedated patients had fully drifted off to sleep before starting their work again. Michael’s nurses cleaned his skin thoroughly. It took them a while to even notice the absence of nails on his hand through all the blood and it was only when they were getting him into a hospital gown that they could fully see the bloody tally of slashes in his back. They called over a doctor and only then noticed the makeshift bandage around his foot as they worked to clean the blood from his legs. 

“He’s missing two toes!” a nurse exclaimed. 

“That’s not the worst of it,” another nurse said quietly. “He’s been raped. We need to get a SANE over here as soon as we can.” 

The nurses’ words floated gently through Geoff’s mind as he dozed fitfully. In his sleepy state he couldn’t remember what the words meant but his gut was telling him that something was very wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a couple more chapters left so stay tuned. I won't write all the way through their recovery. If somebody else wants to feel free. 
> 
> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.


	17. Spoken Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Achivement Hunters are safely in the hospital, but that doesn't mean that they are okay.

Jack was having trouble answering all the questions that were being asked. Who were the men that had grabbed them? He still didn’t know anything other than the names Red and Blue, which had to be code names. What were they after? Again, he didn’t know but they had obviously grabbed the wrong people. 

Wilson sighed, sitting back in his chair. Jack’s head swam a little from exhaustion and worry. He wondered how his friends were doing. Maggie was looking through a magazine, face rapt as she stared at the images. 

Gavin sat next to him, head dropping every once and awhile as he tried desperately to keep his eyes open. Burnie had left to grab some food but Lindsay and Griffon were sitting across the aisle of chairs, listening to his story. Lori was on her way but was waiting for a neighbor to come watch the kids. Kat and Caiti were grabbing coffee and Meg had just gone to take a quick walk around the halls, claiming the sitting and not knowing anything was driving her mad. 

“I’m sorry I don’t know more,” Jack said. 

“Don’t worry, the important thing is that you’re safe now.” Detective Wilson looked tired, turning away slowly and closing his little notebook. 

The silence was tense and Jack needed to get something off his chest, the words pushing to get out into the open. “They were insane, the lot of them. I mean, Blue, or whatever his real name was, seemed almost happy. Well, not happy maybe, but gleeful. He smiled when he said his boss didn’t need the information for a little while.   
Seemed excited that he got to…torture…us.” The word torture seemed weird in Jack’s mouth, especially since it was now connected to him. He had been tortured for information. 

Wilson sat forward, a crease in his forehead. “Wait, he said his boss didn’t need the information yet?” Jack nodded.

Wilson grabbed his phone quickly punching in a number and putting it to his ear. Jack stared at him, confused. “Yeah, that Blue guy who got away? He has a boss. This is bigger than we thought. I’ll meet you down at the station as soon as I can. Mhmm. I’ll see you soon.” Wilson clicked off his phone, standing and stuffing away his little pad of paper. “I have to go back to the station. Thank you for all your help!” 

Jack watched as he left, feeling a slight tension leave his body. Hopefully he had helped a little bit. A woman entered the room, a badge identifying her as a social worker. She walked forward, looking at Maggie before turning to him. 

“Hi, my name is Margaret Stevens. I work with CPS. The officer in charge let me know about Maggie’s situation although I don’t know the whole story. You’re the one who found her, right?” 

Jack shook her offered hand before answering. “Actually, it was more like she found us. She knew the vents in that building like the back of her hand. She brought us water.” Jack smiled fondly at the girl who had turned excitedly to Gavin to show him a picture in the magazine she was looking at. She still hadn’t said a word. 

“Do you know anything about her family? If she has any family in the area?” Mrs. Stephens watched the same interaction, smiling a little. 

Images of Annie and Paolo popped up in front of Jack’s eyes. “I think I met her dad and her grandmother. But they’re both dead now.” Jack’s heart ached for the little girl, losing her family so quickly. He wished he knew how to help her. 

Apparently the woman liked something in his face because she pulled out a business card and scribbled a number on it. “Here is her CPS case number.” Jack took the proffered card, looking at her questioningly. “You can check in on her if you want to. I am going to take her up to the children’s wing so they can check her over. After that if we can’t find any relatives for her, she’s going into a group home. It might be good if she could see a familiar face every once in awhile.” 

Jack nodded and Mrs. Stevens went over to Maggie, introducing herself to the girl. For some reason he hadn’t thought about what would happen to the girl after they got out. Now apparently she would go with this Child Protective Services Worker and into the foster system if they couldn’t find any more of her family. That thought kind of twisted his stomach but he didn’t really know any way to change it. 

Caiti and Kat came through the doorway and Jack hurried over to embrace his wife and then Jeremy’s wife. Caiti handed him a coffee before giving him a kiss and hugging him again. “I’m glad you’re safe!” she whispered in his ear. 

“I just hope the rest of the guys are okay,” Jack answered solemnly. 

*********************************************************

It seemed like hours later that a nurse finally entered the room. Maggie had left with the social worker a while ago and Jack was fighting the sleep in his eyes despite the coffee. It took all of them a moment to notice the woman in blue scrubs holding a clipboard but when her voice filled the quiet room, Jack felt energy come back to him. 

“Lindsay Jones? Is there a Lindsay Jones here?” Lindsay jumped to her feet, stumbling slightly. She looked uncharacteristically nervous and Jack knew how she felt. Was it good news or bad news? Was Michael okay?

“I’m here,” she said, raising her hand in a half wave. 

The nurse nodded, giving her a calming smile. “Michael is doing very well, considering everything. We had to sedate him so he was calm enough that we could work safely on him but he is coming up from the sedation now if you would like to see him?” 

“Of course!” Lindsay said without a moment’s hesitation. The nurse smiled again, looking down at her clipboard. 

“Can I also have Griffon Ramsey?” Griffon stood suddenly next to Lindsay, relief on her face. The nurse smiled at her with sympathy in her face. “Geoff has been sedated as well. He’s a little on edge so we would like to have you come see him to give him some familiar faces. Michael and Geoff are in the same room given that Geoff wouldn’t let them take Michael anywhere without him going too.” 

Jack blinked a moment but then realized that it made a lot of sense. If he were in Geoff’s position he wouldn’t have let them take Michael away either given that the last time he saw Michael being carried away it was at the hands of the rogues. 

The last time he had seen Michael…all that blood…and the pain in his eyes. And what about Geoff’s ear? Jack felt himself standing. “Can I come too? I need to see them.” 

The nurse glanced at him a moment before consulting her chart. “Jack?” She asked after a moment causing Jack to nod, albeit confusedly. “Geoff was asking where you were. You can come along but everyone else will have to stay, I’m afraid. We can’t give those two too much excitement all at once.”

“Do you have any updates about Ryan?” Lori asked from behind Jack.

“Or how about Jeremy?” Kat added. 

The nurse looked over at them kindly. “Last I heard Jeremy is out of surgery. He’s still under the effects of the anesthesia. Another nurse will be up in a little while to update his family. Ryan I believe is still in surgery. I’m sorry, that’s all I know.” 

The nurse turned around, leading Lindsay, Griffon and Jack out and down a hallway to a pair of elevators, pressing the up button. “Michael and Geoff are on the fifth floor in the psychology wing. Given what they have been through, their doctors suggested they go through a couple tests to make sure they are healthy both physically and mentally.” The nurse led them into an elevator, pressing the fifth floor button. She turned to Jack. “While you are visiting, I am going to have a doctor do a quick check-up with you. You were under a lot of stress.” 

Jack nodded. “My breathing does seem a little funny, to be honest.” The nurse narrowed her eyes at him. 

“Maybe sooner rather than later, then.” The elevator dinged and the trio followed the nurse out onto the fifth floor and down a really long hallway. She stopped outside a door, pausing as if wondering how much to say. 

“They have been through a trauma,” the nurse started, mainly speaking to the wives as if she knew Jack had been through the same thing. “Don’t ask them too many questions and if they don’t want to share something please don’t push them too hard. We want this to feel like a safe place for them.” 

Griffon and Lindsay both nodded and Jack gave a grunt of acknowledgement. The nurse nodded, seeming satisfied before going back to a strictly medical rundown. “I want to prepare you to the best of my abilities for how they look. Geoff’s right ear has been cut off. While we were able to retrieve the ear, we were not able to reattach. There are other avenues we can go down in that direction that we can talk about in the future. Michael…” The nurse trailed off before taking a breath, clearly shaken a bit. 

“…Michael has been tortured.” Jack heard Lindsay’s sharp intake of breath and felt his stomach sink a little. He hadn’t gone into detail about the torture that they had all endured. An image of Michael stuffed into the box flashed in front of his eyes. 

“He is missing a molar on the left lower side of his mouth. The fingernails on his right hand have been ripped off and his two smallest toes from the right foot have been cut off. The fingernails will regrow in time and we are watching his foot for signs of infection. Hopefully we will not have to perform any surgery.” 

The nurse took a breath. Jack’s mind was swimming but she wasn’t done yet. “His right arm is broken. He has bad bruising over his ribs and face. He has a couple cuts on his torso that we have cleaned. There are also over one hundred stitches in his back from a series of deeper cuts.” 

The nurse nodded once finished and turned to open the door, which swung open quietly. The room was relatively small to house two beds and a dual set of beeping machines. Griffon glided quickly over to Geoff’s bed where he was woozily blinking his eyes at the newcomers. Lindsay sat in the chair next to Michael’s bed, brushing is hair back from his forehead. Jack was relieved to see that Michael was no longer covered in his own blood and that the hospital gown he was wearing was clean. A stark contrast to the room of boxes. 

Michael remained asleep as the nurse went to check the machines and IV’s. Jack hovered between beds, unsure who to focus on. 

“Hey there,” Griffon said quietly to her husband. Geoff’s head was wrapped in bandages but he still turned his head toward her voice. A smile warmed his eyes. 

The beeping on Geoff’s monitor suddenly skyrocketed as he sat up quickly. “Whoa! Geoff—” Griffon was saying as Geoff looked wildly around until his gaze fell onto Michael. Then his eyes darted to Jack.

“Jack!” Geoff’s voice was a little hoarse but he sounded a lot like his regular self. “Where are the others? Where are Jeremy and Ryan? And what about Gavin, is he here!?” 

“Geoff! Everything is fine!” Jack made a soothing gesture with his hands but a tickle caught in his chest and he had to turn to cough. He turned back, intent on calming down Geoff. “Jeremy is out of surgery. Ryan’s still in surgery but he’ll be fine too. Gav is down in the waiting room.” 

Geoff nodded a couple times before realizing fully that Griffon was next to him. “Oh, Griff!” He wrapped his arms around her and they shared a tight hug. “How’s Millie?” 

Griffon calmed Geoff down and Jack sat in one of the chairs. Exhaustion filled his body. He was still worried about Jeremy and Ryan but seeing Geoff and Michael, even in their hospital beds was calming. They were out. They were being taken care of. 

He was so tired. Before he could really think about anything else, his head was drooping and he was falling into an exhausted sleep. 

**************************************************************

Michael woke slowly, drifting into awareness. Something was different but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The pain was still there, just muffled. It took a moment to realize that he was warm. Not the unpleasant and sweltering heat that had accompanied him in the box, but a gentle warmth that loosened his muscles. A contentment that he hadn’t felt in days filled him. 

A low voice murmured something by his side and fingers brushed his hair away from his face. His heart rate skyrocketed and the contentment was gone. More fingers were on his arm now, checking something. 

Were they going to hurt him more? Adrenaline coursed through his system.

Michael sat upright in bed, eyes wide open, looking for a way to escape. Hands grabbed at him and he yelled as he tried to get away. Not again. His back throbbed anew along with his arm and foot. Well, actually everything hurt now that he was moving. 

“Michael! Look at me!” A voice was calling to his desperately; there was a hand on his cheek trying to turn his face. Something in the voice knocked some of the sleep-stupidity out of him and Michael woke up a little further. 

He looked over to see the person to his right. Lindsay. Michael froze, not quite ready to believe what his eyes were telling him. Michael felt tears come as several realizations came to him at once. 

He was in a hospital. He was out of that place. The rogues were either dead or in police custody. He was free. 

Michael threw his arms around his wife, holding her closely and ignoring the way his back complained against the sharp movement. She hugged him back, obviously trying to be careful with him. 

“Hi!” she said into his neck.

“Hey,” Michael responded into her shoulder. 

Michael couldn’t stop his sudden flinch at the feeling of fingers on his shoulder. Lindsay let go, looking to see what was wrong. A nurse stood at Michael’s side, her fingers going over his back. 

“Mr. Jones, please lie still. You could have ripped your stitches.” The nurse sounded concerned and Michael relaxed a bit, nodding slightly before sitting back in the bed at the gentle touch of her hand pushing his shoulder. There was a cast on the arm Gent liked to twist and an IV sticking out of his skin. 

Jack sat across the room blinking blearily at him. Michael had never seen him look so tired before. Geoff and Griffon were both watching him, Geoff in his own hospital bed. Seeing Geoff and Jack there was extremely calming. 

Michael tried to remember what had happened. He remembered the box. Then there was the wild escape. There was gunfire. He rubbed his face blearily. His mind was still a bit muddled. 

A figure appeared in the doorway and Michael couldn’t stop his heart from jumping into overdrive and adrenaline shooting into his system. The heart monitor next to his bed was going crazy. It was just a nurse but for a split second he had seen Nook’s face there. Why did the rogues still control him? Why was he still expecting to see them? He never had to do that again. So why was his mind conjuring Nook’s face?

The nurse stepped further into the room shooting him a timid but warm smile. “I wasn’t trying to scare you, sorry.”

Michael managed a small nod, trying to calm his racing heart. Geoff let out a sigh from the other bed and Michael noticed that his boss looked a little panicked but was calming down as Griffon patted his arm. It made him feel a little better about his panicked response earlier. 

“Could I talk to Michael privately, please?” the nurse asked. Lindsay nodded, standing up to make room for the nurse to sit in her chair. Jack looked like he had fallen asleep again sitting up. The nurse edged past Michael’s wife and slid into her seat, leaving Lindsay to cross the room and strike up a conversation with Geoff and Griffon as an obvious ploy to give them some privacy. 

Michael’s stomach twisted slightly as the nurse leaned forward, but not in a bad way. Had something happened? Had he done something wrong? Where were the others? His apprehension soon turned to a whole other gut twisting feeling with her next words. 

“Hello, Michael. My name is Jackie and I have SANE training. That means that I work with victims of sexual assault. The nurses cleaning you up noticed significant signs of sexual assault.” Her voice was soft and Michael appreciated the forced conversation Lindsay and Griffon were having that seemed to mask her words. It took him a moment to realize what the feeling was that was eating him up inside. 

Shame. He felt incredibly ashamed and embarrassed for some reason. It felt as though what had happened in that room between him and the rogues, and then once in from of Ryan, was an incredibly private moment. 

He felt the blush in his cheeks and looked away momentarily. 

“What?” the question exploded quietly across the room, stopping the forced conversation between the wives and waking Jack with a start. Geoff was staring at Michael desperately as if struggling not to drown. His eyes flickered between Michael and the nurse. “What did you just say?” The question was directed at the nurse who looked a little shocked but quickly covered the expression. 

Michael looked over at Geoff’s face. Maybe he hadn’t heard the nurses exact words. Part of him knew that it would do him good to have other people acknowledge what he had gone through. But given the block in his throat, making it currently impossible to speak, he doubted he would ever willingly tell them himself. He made a split second decision, just as the nurse was answering Geoff.

“This is a private conversation. If Michael chooses to tell you—”

“No,” Michael interrupted, his voice sounding raspy and small. The nurse looked down at him questioningly and Michael chose to look up at the ceiling. “They should all know.” The words caused a sinking feeling in him to the point he thought he might sink right through the bed and through the floor. 

“Are you sure?” the nurse asked quietly. This was the moment where he could choose to keep it secret, push it down. But that was what the rogues would have wanted. They had wanted to break him down and force him to hide. He wouldn’t give them that satisfaction.

Michael managed a brief nod, still staring at the ceiling. 

There was an expectant silence as the nurse sighed, deciding how to tell the group. Jack was rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes. Lindsay and Griffon were looking over with puzzled expressions and Geoff was still flicking his eyes between Michael and the nurse as if trying to figure out what was going on with just his gaze. 

“When Michael came in, he was in bad shape. There was clear evidence of torture and there was a lot of blood.” The words stabbed into Michael. It was the first time he had heard the word “torture” directly applied to his experience. He could feel his hands start shaking. 

The nurse paused a moment before continuing. “It was because of all this other trauma that we didn’t immediately catch the signs of sexual assault. When they did, I was the first one they called because of my specific training in this area. This is a hard situation. I’m here right now mainly to just walk through Michael’s options with him.” 

The silence in the room was thick enough to cut. Michael kept his gaze on the ceiling until he heard the nurse say his name. It somehow made it seem more real. He closed his eyes. What would the others think? The shame came again. He shouldn’t have let them know. 

“Michael.” He recognized Geoff’s voice, uncharacteristically quiet as he called Michael’s name. Michael opened his eyes but didn’t look away from the ceiling above him. Unbidden, tears started filling his eyes and he stubbornly tried to will them away. 

“Michael.” The call came again and something in the voice made Michael’s head turn towards his boss almost against his will. Michael realized with surprise that Geoff had tears in his eyes. For some reason he had been expecting some kind of judgment or blame. 

“Michael,” Geoff started again, his lip quivering a bit. Michael felt a tear leak out of the corner of his eye. “I’m sorry.” Geoff’s words were quiet but they filled the room.

Michael blinked at the unexpected words. “Geoff—” he started. 

“No, I’m sorry! I should have done more to stop them from taking you away. I should have…” Geoff trailed off and Michael could hear the self-blame evident in his voice. 

“There’s nothing you could have done,” Michael told the other man, trying to put as much conviction into his shot voice as he could. 

“Is that what messed Ryan up?” Jack’s voice breezed through the room and Michael looked over at his bearded coworker. Jack’s face was incredibly sad but also strangely reassuring. 

Michael nodded. “Ryan, he…saw…” Michael swallowed against the lump in his throat. Jack nodded, looking down quickly but Michael could still catch the pained look in his face. 

The nurse leaned forward again. “Michael, there are several options leading forward that we can take. I was informed by the police just now that the three men that were torturing you are all now deceased.” She paused a moment to let her words sink in. Michael nodded slowly; he had figured, had hoped as much.

“This changes things a little since the normal course of action is the file a rape kit and file a criminal suit. Since your attackers are deceased it is entirely up to you. If you would like to go through with the kit just in case we could file against the organization that kidnapped you, we can do that. If not that is perfectly fine, it’s completely your choice.” 

Those words reverberated in Michael’s head. He had a choice this time. He could choose what to do. He felt one of the heavy chains of powerlessness that had been bound to him fall away, leaving him lighter than before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will probably cram the ending to this story into one final chapter after this one, even though it might be longer. If anyone wants to keep writing this story by all means go ahead. 
> 
> Please consider leaving kudos or a comment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.


	18. Peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the end, they were all free and safe. Maybe they would be dealing with the abduction in some way or another for the rest of their lives, but for now, they had each other.

Ryan woke up slowly, letting the numbness drift over his skin and enjoying the feeling of the soft sheets against his body. Through the haze of drug-induced sleep he couldn’t quite figure out where he was or why he was there. 

A hand stroked his own and he blinked a little. The light above him was bright and he squinted a little, turning his head to see a beautiful woman next to him. Lori. 

“Hey,” she said quietly and her voice sounded like silk to his ears. 

“Hi,” he whispered back. He swallowed against his dry throat, struggling to remember. “Where am I?” 

“You’re at the hospital. Jack was here just a bit ago but the doctor said he needed to go do some tests to make sure there wasn’t any liquid in his lungs or something like that. You just had surgery because you were bleeding internally. How do you feel?” 

Ryan took a long breath, letting the words sink into his consciousness. “I’m fine,” Ryan heard himself saying. He was about to describe the strange floating feeling but it was then that something in his mind clicked and the memories came rushing back. 

Michael in that box. Jeremy shot and bleeding steadily. Geoff with the bandage around his head. Jack coughing softly in the dark… 

“Are the others okay? Geoff, Michael and Jeremy? Is Jack gonna be alright?” 

Lori squeezed his hand reassuringly. “They’re all recovering. You were the last out of surgery. Geoff and Michael are doing fine. Jeremy got out of surgery about an hour ago and Jack looks like he’s doing just fine. The doctor says that you shouldn’t move for a couple hours.” 

Ryan nodded, stopping as his head swam a little. He didn’t feel any pain but he did feel incredibly sleepy. Lori was smiling. “Doc said you’d be tired. Go ahead and get some sleep, babe. I’ll be here when you wake up.” 

Ryan slowly drifted off the sleep, his peaceful mind interrupted with flashes of memory from that dark place. His sleep was thankfully dreamless. 

*************************************************************

Michael almost regretted agreeing to do the rape kit for the sole reason of all the intrusive questions and steps. No he didn’t have any of the clothes he was wearing. Sure, if they really needed to take pictures of his bruises they could. 

The cheek swab was weird but not as weird as a nurse wiping his ass for “DNA”. Then the seemingly endless set of questions. Was there oral penetration? Was there anal penetration? How many times? Could you make a guess then? Did they ever cum on you? 

By the end of the questions he couldn’t stop his shaking. Seeing how uncomfortable he was, Lindsay had hovered over by Geoff’s bed and let the nurses do their work but seeing that the nurses were packing up the kit, she came back over. Michael was almost ridiculously glad to feel her warm hand on his own. He usually didn’t like people touching him but this situation seemed to be breaking a lot of what he thought was true. The rogues had really messed him up. 

Jack had disappeared some time ago and he wondered absently where he had gone off. Time seemed to pass differently here. 

“How are you feeling?” Lindsay asked from his side. Michael thought a moment, trying to pry through his complicated and swirling thoughts, eventually settling on the largest one. 

“I’m tired,” he answered. He almost winced at the sound of his voice; it still sounded weak and rusty. 

“Get some sleep then,” Lindsay answered quietly. “I’ll be sure to wake you up if anything happens.” Michael nodded blearily, letting the tiredness enter his body. 

Before long, he was out cold. 

****************************************************************

Maybe it was the hospital environment, the seemingly unending string of lights and nurses passing by at all hours, that made the next few days pass in a blur of sleep and hurried conversations. Michael was incredibly grateful to Lindsay for staying close. He didn’t want to worry her, but he kept seeing the rogues everywhere, following him. 

He knew he wasn’t alone in the nightmares. Geoff had woken up suddenly the night before, gasping after some kind of nightmare. Michael had pretended he was asleep as Griffon held her sobbing husband as he murmured his confessions. 

The whispered “I killed him. Jeremy had a knife and I stabbed him a bunch of times. And now he’s dead. I killed that rogue…” fluttered through the air, landing on Michael’s skin and raising goosebumps. Geoff had killed one of the rogues. Michael couldn’t decipher if the twisting feeling in his gut was sympathy for what Geoff was dealing with or guilt for the same thing. 

As the days passed it was harder and harder for Michael to remember what had happened in those days of terror. His mind had shut that door and he was grateful in a way for that. 

The doctors were having a hay day trying to figure a way to give Geoff back his ear. Some wanted to give him some kind of prosthetic plastic ear, others figured it was better to just leave him without the ear. One doctor wanted the opportunity to experiment with growing an ear out of stem cells and Michael’s favorite theory was from a doctor who wanted to 3D print Geoff a new ear. Geoff had let the doctors debate amongst themselves, seemingly unconcerned about the ear but Michael had seen him self-consciously rubbing the bandage when he thought no one was looking. 

Jack had been cleared by his doctor after promising to let them know if his breathing didn’t get better. Gavin had been in and out of their room. The Brit had been his usual sporadic self, creating a mess of old coffee cups and random papers on the one table in their room despite them reminding him he couldn’t create a mess of biohazard proportions in a hospital of all places. 

 

Michael hadn’t seen Ryan or Jeremy since the hasty escape from the compound. Gavin and Jack had kept them updated on the recovery process but Michael yearned to actually go see the other Achievement Hunter’s by himself. The nurses had commanded him to stay in bed until his back healed more and so they could check constantly for any possible infections. 

It was on the third day in the hospital that the nurses finally let him leave his bed, which is how he found himself being pushed down the hospital hallway in a wheelchair by Gavin. 

“Okay Micool, you get a million dollars, but for the rest of your life you get followed by a marching band.” 

“That would make for some great entrances,” Michael answered absently, trying to identify what the strange feeling in his chest was. 

“But it would get so loud! Drums all the time. Wouldn’t you go deaf?”

“I mean, just wear earplugs.” 

“But what if somebody wanted to talk to you? What if you had a phone call?” 

Gavin pushed Michael’s wheelchair through another doorway and suddenly they were in a small hospital room crammed full of people. There was Jack, moving out of the way so they could get further into the room. Geoff was leaning against the wall, white bandage still wrapped around his head, having a conversation with Burnie and Griffon. Lindsey had beaten them there and was talking with Caiti, Meg and Lori. 

Michael smiled as he saw Jeremy in his own wheelchair with Kat standing nearby. “Hey Lil’ J! Looking good!” Jeremy was looking paler than usual and there were dark circles under his eyes but he still had his signature smile plastered on his face. 

“Michael, thank god. I thought I was the only member of the wheelchair committee to show up!” Jeremy joked.

“Don’t worry Lil’ J, screw all those losers!” 

“Hey! I want to be part of the club!” Ryan’s voice came from the one bed in the room. Michael looked at him appraisingly. The bruises on Ryan’s face looked worse than they had and he was incredibly pale as well. Michael got the impression that without the pillows behind his head, he wouldn’t have the strength to lift his head. Jack had told him that Ryan was on the slowest recovery track given his more extensive internal injuries but that he had already wowed the doctors with his positive attitude.

“What do you think, Lil’ J. Are we accepting members?” 

“I dunno, Michael. He doesn’t even have a wheelchair yet.” 

“Can I be in the club too?” Gavin asked from over Michael’s shoulder. 

“Of course not!” Jeremy scoffed. 

As Jeremy, Gavin and Ryan entered a bantering conversation about the qualifications of joining the wheelchair committee, Michael looked around the room, feeling strangely separate and yet connected at the same time. The feeling in his chest was growing. 

Michael’s friends were all okay. They were okay. The words to conversations around him floated through the air, sparked with laughter. It took him way too long to realize that the feeling in his chest was peace. He was finally able to relax and simply enjoy being alive and free from that place that was slowly being buried in the back of his mind. 

Some part of him knew that he would probably have to deal with those memories for the rest of his life. He also knew that the recovery for him and the other Achievement Hunters was going to be an incredibly long road and he didn’t even want to think about the hospital bills. 

Maybe the experience had been awful, full of near-death experiences and chaos. But if anything, the one good that it had given him was perspective. He could step back and just enjoy being alive and pain-free. His friends were here. They were free. The air was clean and full of light. 

He was at peace. They were all at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this turned out way shorter than I anticipated but I figured I needed to wrap it up now or I wasn't going to finish it at all. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this fic. Please consider leaving kudos and a comment about your experience. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. I really enjoy reading comments about the different aspects of the story. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading.   
> Stay awesome, friends!


End file.
